Advocacy & Safety - Bike commuters included in $700B bailout

http://www.latimes.com/media/acrobat/2008-10/42687187.pdf

The gobble-d-gook is on page 205, if you are so silly as to try and read any of it.

1 SEC. 211. TRANSPORTATION FRINGE BENEFIT TO BICYCLE
2 COMMUTERS.

Blah Blah Blah

Anyway, some house representative will actually switch their vote on $700,000,000,000.00 based on a bicycle commuter benefit.

Sounds like (yes, I read the goobledegook) a tax deduction for bike commuting.

Bicycle Retailer - Laguna Hills,CA,USA

http://www.bicycleretailer.com/news/newsDetail/1878.html

Key points--


Employers of people who bicycle to work stand to gain a $20 per month tax credit per cycling employee, according to the Senate’s version of the Wall Street bailout bill, H.R. 1424.


The employer tax break is laid out in Sec. 211, “Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters," which is under the Transportation and Domestic Fuel Security Provision section in H.R. 1424. The $20 a month tax relief per bicycle commuting employee is to cover the cost of any employer reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee “for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.”

This is stupid.

This is stupid.

Here's a blogger who agrees with you--

http://journals.aol.com/skip3366/TheMaverickConservative/entries/2008/10/02/wall-street-bailout-and-bicycle-commuters-congress-provides-comendy-relief/4889

$240 would pay for one of my wheels. I guess that you dont like this because of some political reason. I think that it will help push up the tiny number of bike commuters.

Here's a blogger who agrees with you--

http://journals.aol.com/skip3366/TheMaverickConservative/entries/2008/10/02/wall-street-bailout-and-bicycle-commuters-congress-provides-comendy-relief/4889

$240 would pay for one of my wheels. I guess that you dont like this because of some political reason. I think that it will help push up the tiny number of bike commuters.

I'm no conservative, but that guy raised a good point. I would MUCH rather see money poured into bike infrastructure and bike-specific legislation than another meaningless tax break that will inevitably be repaid, with interest, the way every "benefit" we've seen in the last howevermany years has come back to haunt us.

I guess that you dont like this because of some political reason.

It's just insane that we have to put things like this in as riders to other bills. Oh well.

I would like to see a law passed saying that any bills must address specific issues. This rider BS is just that. You wanna make our kids pay for our stupidity, don't connect it to a ridiculous tax break for "commuters".

BTW, how exactly do you qualify for this break? How often must you ride? Who is gonna confirm that you indeed did this much riding.

It is more feel good BS legislation that some hack can claim credit for.

We need to fire EVERYBODY in DC. Maybe just nuke the place.

I agree trekker, this is nothing more than legalized bribery.

In Danish it's called valgflæsk : election pork.

Section 211 is worthless.

As I understand it, this is to reimburse employers who already provide a commuting benefit to motorists, such as paying for their parking, to extend a similar benefit to bicyclists. Obviously that won't affect most of us anyway, but it is an incremental step towards fairness. It is simply putting cycling to work on par with driving a car to work for those employers and their employees. If you don't think employers should be subsidizing either, that's fine too, but I say equality is better than inequality.

As I understand it, this is to reimburse employers who already provide a commuting benefit to motorists, such as paying for their parking, to extend a similar benefit to bicyclists. Obviously that won't affect most of us anyway, but it is an incremental step towards fairness. It is simply putting cycling to work on par with driving a car to work for those employers and their employees. If you don't think employers should be subsidizing either, that's fine too, but I say equality is better than inequality.

Always a calm voice of reason :beer:

This is a hard crowd. We get something to go our way and it draws complaints.
This is the way our Gov has done things for a century yet only now people are
learning about it. Of course Line Item is the best but it isnt going to happen in
our life times. Their system benefits us for once so lets just take it.
I hope everyone that complains about it has been to a few local Gov.
meetings and spent some time promoting bikes from our level :)

Here's a blogger who agrees with you--

http://journals.aol.com/skip3366/TheMaverickConservative/entries/2008/10/02/wall-street-bailout-and-bicycle-commuters-congress-provides-comendy-relief/4889
$240 would pay for one of my wheels. I guess that you don't like this because of some political reason. I think that it will help push up the tiny number of bike commuters.

Most bike commuters can get away with a less expensive wheel. This, for people that will be able to access it will pay for lube, tubes, the occasional tire, chain and cassette over the course of a year. $.50 per trip seems like the perfect amount to off-set the wear and tear of *regular* commuting.

Many of my co-workers get a tax benefit for parking--it's taken out of their paycheck pre-tax. That makes sense to some extent. Employees who park their cares on land the employer has purchased don't pay taxes on that parking, so why should employees who park their cars on lots owned by others? But we all still help pay to subsidize automobile parking, bicycling expenses should be added.

That said, this sounds like a stupid way of giving cyclists a similar benefit. Let us deduct it from our taxes. The paperwork that employers and employees will have to fill out to get this tax benefit may be more expensive to process than the benefit is worth.

http://www.latimes.com/media/acrobat/2008-10/42687187.pdf

The gobble-d-gook is on page 205, if you are so silly as to try and read any of it.

1 SEC. 211. TRANSPORTATION FRINGE BENEFIT TO BICYCLE
2 COMMUTERS.

Blah Blah Blah

Anyway, some house representative will actually switch their vote on $700,000,000,000.00 based on a bicycle commuter benefit.

I'm not sure I can blame him. It doesn't belong, it belongs in an energy package. Apparently it's 850 billion now because of all of the items added to get it through.

One side of me is screaming: This bill is terrible and somehow the Bush administration is ripping me off again. The other side says: Enough Senators say that we need this that if I can't believe all of them about this I might as well move to Europe now because our constitution is a failure.

Our taxes are going to go sky high next year. And they'll have to in order to keep this country solvent. It sucks that bicycle commuting is now going to be a tiny part of that bill.

I own my business with my brother and we both bike commute(some days, not all). I figure we can take that deduction and then make a donation to an organization that supports bike infrastructure, etc. Any suggestions?

As I understand it, this is to reimburse employers who already provide a commuting benefit to motorists, such as paying for their parking, to extend a similar benefit to bicyclists. Obviously that won't affect most of us anyway, but it is an incremental step towards fairness. It is simply putting cycling to work on par with driving a car to work for those employers and their employees. If you don't think employers should be subsidizing either, that's fine too, but I say equality is better than inequality.

Exactly.

I explained the benefit as simply as I could here:

http://www.vabike.org/bike-commuter-tax-benefit-passes-both-house-senate/ (http://www.vabike.org/bike-commuter-tax-benefit-passes-both-house-senate/)

The new law simply extends to cyclists the benefits already being given to transit riders and motorists.

More justification for the Fairtax.

It was an attempt to buy the vote of Earl Blumenauer, Dist. 3 of OR, Team D. Earl is a man of integrity--he didn't vote for it.

I was impressed that Earl Blumenauer did not change his vote. Well done.

I'm not happy with how the bike commuting changes got voted in (aka...PORK), but now that it's law, I'll try to take advantage of it (assuming my employer is willing to offer it).

So now we have a tax break that benefits bicycle commuters in their commuting to and from their place of employment. Any employee can benefit, reduce fuel consumption in automobiles, reduces air pollution, and improve and/or maintain their physical health. In turn, it would also encourage the transportation infrustructure for bicyclists.

Compare this to the tax break given to motorists if they should buy the civilian version of the Hummer. It is a vehicle that isn't all that fuel efficient. With today's fuel prices, GM hasn't been able to sell them all that well. What sense does it make to subsidize an automobile whose tax break is gone before you know it? For those of you who might already own a Hummer, you have my apologies.

As previously stated, the tax break for bicycle commuters can benefit us all.

In the local news (with 7 pages so far of reader comments):
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/10/10/20081010bikebailout1010.html

Al