Though its sponsor voted against the larger bailout bill, one provision seems to be pretty good -- a $20 per month credit for bicycle commuters. The primary sponsor, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, is please the piece got in but couldn't vote for the bailout after getting a ton of calls and letters from constituents.
But there's one major flaw in the piece: it is funded by an offset of corporate taxes.
Come January, bike commuters will receive a monthly credit of up to $20 that can be spent on maintaining, repairing or buying bicycles.
Employers, many of whom have long provided tax-free parking and transit benefits, will establish how they administer the cycling tax credit, Ms. Graves said. Employers will be able to deduct the credit from their corporate taxes.
But non-profit employers, who employ about 9 percent (12.5 million) of America's workers, don't pay corporate taxes. That means this credit is unavailable to them, and so it is unavailable to their employees.
Add in government employees, which employs far more than the non-profit sector, and suddenly there are a whole lot of employees left out in the cold. And these are the kinds of folks who are dedicated to public service and more likely to bicycle to work for altruistic reasons.
The same applies to all those parking and transit benefits, too. Unless they make these direct benefits instead of tax offsets, there is a large portion of the country that can't take advantage of them.