I'm a little late to this, and I didn't go (this blog post is starting out swimmingly) but DDOT and DOES have hosted another Commuter Benefits Information Sessions to help employers understand the 2016 Commuter Benefits Law. That law requires organizations with 20 or more employees to offer pre-tax or subsidized commuter benefits.
That would have included pre-tax bicycle commuter benefits, but - well - Congress killed that.
Businesses that provide their employees with $20 per month to cover the expense of commuting by bicycle would also no longer be able to write off the benefit under the tax bill. Without that incentive, the relatively few employers offering the benefit may discontinue it, said Ken McLeod, policy director for the League of American Bicyclists.
Bicyclists can use the benefit to offset the cost of a new bicycle or pay for helmets, locks, lights or maintenance like new tires, McLeod said. The money doesn't count toward employee earnings, he said.
Getting rid of the bicycle benefit, which was adopted in 2009, would save the government a relatively low $5 million a year, McLeod said. By comparison, the parking benefit costs the government about $7.3 billion a year in foregone taxes, according to a report by TransitCenter, a transit advocacy group.
$5 million a year surprises me. I think when the bill went into effect they thought it would cost $1 million. I guess it's either a roaring success or a failure (depending on your perspective). I really wish they would have studied the program to see if it was cost-effective, but....that ship has maybe sailed.
The House version of the tax bill retained the benefit, but the Senate version eliminated it even though more than 1,500 bicyclists contacted members of the Senate Finance Committee to try to persuade them to keep the write-off, he said.
"Growth in commuting by bicycle contributes to reducing congestion, promoting good health and supporting a low-cost mode of transportation for all Americans," 20 bicycle, community, and sports and outdoor industry groups said in a letter to the committee's chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and senior Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon.
What bothers bicyclists the most, McLeod said, isn't so much the money, but "just that it feels like the federal government doesn't support biking.
"I don't know if that is something the legislators meant to express," he said, "but that's something we're definitely hearing."
Still, employers can still comply with the DC law by offering a bicycle commuter a reimbursement of bicycling costs
I don't know if they'll do another one, but I do know that the link to the goDCgo page on the Commuter Benefits Law is broken.
I work for a sustainability-focused nonprofit, and in my 5 years I have never managed to convince the HR team to provide biking benefits. Now that the federal program has gone away I guess I'll just give up forever. Good thing it's already the cheapest method, I guess, compared to all my coworkers who metro or drive or rideshare (boo).
Posted by: Ampersand | February 17, 2018 at 01:32 PM