It's another nightmare scenario for the HR department in 2014: explaining to users of public transportation why they're suddenly getting a much smaller subsidy than those who drive to work.
Then again, a white knight in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., just may succeed in restoring equity to the bus/car equation.
As things now stand, the transit subsidy of up to $245 a month is set to be slashed to $130 a month on Jan. 1. On the same date, the parking subsidy will increase from $245 to $250.
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Well, Schumer didn't like that sort of disparity, and he and one of his buddies introduced a last-minute bill to keep the transit rate at $245. But his efforts were in vain; there wasn't time for Congress to act on it before lawmakers went home for the rest of the year.
And although Schumer tried a bit of sleight of hand to pass the bill by unanimous consent, the omnipotent Sen. Orrin Hatch applied the brakes, insisting that the bill had to proceed in an orderly fashion if it were to be brought to a vote.
Still, Schumer told Government Executive, he thinks there's a chance he can ram it through after everyone comes back to D.C.
"A retroactive fix, which Schumer called 'harder but not impossible,' is not without precedent," Government Executive intoned. "A similar gap between mass transit and parking benefits also existed in 2012, but the disparity was rectified after the fact when Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act to stave off the so-called 'fiscal cliff.'
That would be great for the users of mass transit, but would still furrow a few brows in HR as the retroactive payments would have to be calculated and kicked back to the bus and train crowd.
Better that, though, than the endless griping about the unfairness of it all.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
