Passenger Trains > Congress passes mass transit provision - so what?

Congress passed the so-called pre-tax provision for transit riders in the recent spending bill. The provision allows riders to put aside more pre-tax money to purchase monthly etc tickets, and sets the amount equal to current provisions for paid parking. The provision expires 12/31/2014 (you read that right, 2014), so there's less than a week to change your deductions, etc. Then it goes back to the old lower level.

While the break for parking is permanent, the break for higher limits on rail and bus travel has to be renewed every year or two. That's due to a view in Congress that a tax change which reverts to an old level after a year or 10 years doesn't cost as much as a permanent fix. Cynics would argue it also allows campaign contributions every few years from folks who want to make it permanent or get rid of it.

Senator Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Booker (D-NJ) both said Congress needs to stop doing business this way. No word so far from Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who sponsored the change.


<http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/rail_commuters_get_tax_break_they_may_not_be_able_to_use.html#incart_m-rpt-1&gt;

I always thought it was biased and annoying that I could have gotten more for parking than for using BART when I worked in San Francisco. With my current work setup it's irrelevant to me now, but still dumb that they aren't treated the same and that they do this stupid 10 year thing.

Nathan