If you鈥檙e a bike commuter, you might have noticed a slight drop in your income this year at tax season. Why? Because the 2017 Republican tax bill suspended a refund for bike commuters聽that鈥檚 been in place since 2009. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) wants to reverse that聽and, in the process, make the benefit bigger聽and easier to access.
Blumenauer, who has represented Oregon鈥檚 Third聽Congressional District鈥攚hich includes much of Portland鈥攕ince 1996, is known for his penchant for bow ties and his love of cycling, especially for transportation. His first year in Congress, he helped found the Congressional Bike Caucus, which counts over 130 members.
For years,聽Blumenauer has worked to put a benefit for bicycle commuters into federal law. In 2008, he succeeded in getting a tax credit attached to the $700 billion omnibus 鈥渂ailout鈥 bill aimed at the financial crisis, one of a raft of tax provisions representatives passed with the legislation. (In a twist, Blumenauer ultimately voted against the package because聽鈥渉e was looking at the big picture, the state of the economy,鈥 his .)
Even when his bicycle tax credit passed alongside the bailout, he knew it wasn鈥檛 perfect, a staff member told 国产吃瓜黑料 recently. Now that it鈥檚 suspended, Blumenauer wants to use that as an opportunity to pass a new law that offers a better,聽more streamlined, tax break to bike commuters. It won鈥檛 be easy.
What was wrong with the original law? The old benefit offered bike commuters up to $20 a month in the form of a reimbursement from participating employers, who claimed a credit on their corporate taxes. So the tax break really went to companies, not commuters. And since companies carried the burden of administering the program, they often didn鈥檛 participate, which shut out the vast majority of bike commuters from qualifying.
An .聽by Georgia State University found that suspending the reimbursements would generate no more than $50 million over the eight-year period from 2018 through 2025, the year the suspension imposed by the GOP bill expires. That suggests that, at most, roughly 26,000 people nationwide were able to claim the benefit each year鈥攐nly about 1 in 30 bike commuters. (According to the latest American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 800,000 people in the U.S. in 2017.)
So on March 5, Blumenauer introduced a new bill, , better known as the Bicycle Commuter Act, which would change both the size of the tax break and how it鈥檚 structured. 聽
First, more money would be聽earmarked: an increase of up to 20 percent of the existing which raises the bike-commuter tax refund from $20 a month to $53, or just over $600 a year. It鈥檚 also indexed to the existing parking benefit, so the amount will increase over time with inflation. Second, the tax break switches from a complicated, after-tax-reimbursement approach administered by employers to a straight聽pretax benefit available directly to individuals. This would broaden access significantly.
Another important change is that, in the previous bill, using the bike tax break excluded the recipient from using other transit benefits. For instance, if a person claimed the bicycle benefit, they聽couldn鈥檛 also claim benefits for taking the bus. The new bill offers flexibility to claim various benefits that better reflect the range of modes people use to commute to work.
This all sounds great, of course. But what chance does it have of聽actually becoming a聽law?
The current bill is a stand-alone act, but don鈥檛 expect it to remain that way. Its best prospects for passage come as part of a larger 鈥渃leanup鈥 bill related to the 2017 GOP tax act, and that bill hasn鈥檛 appeared yet. Though the Bicycle Commuter Act was聽recently introduced, it鈥檚 also not yet scheduled for any hearings or markups on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax law. And while Democrats hold a substantial majority in the House, any bill has to also pass in the closely divided, Republican-held Senate.
That said, Blumenauer鈥檚 staff is hopeful. They expect to see committee hearings scheduled in the near future. And the bill has 14 cosponsors, including, crucially, Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican who鈥檚 a member of the Congressional Bike Caucus and who cosponsored the bill at introduction. The other initial cosponsor was Massachusetts Democrat Ayanna Pressley. Pressley is new to Congress, but both Buchanan and Blumenauer are high-ranking members of the Ways and Means Committee, and bipartisan backing may help the bill鈥檚 prospects in a divided Congress.
While a bicycle-commuter tax benefit might strike some as frivolous, it鈥檚 hardly unique. So-called transportation fringe benefits date back to 1993聽and include breaks for transit passes, vanpooling, and employer-provided parking. If Congress has decided to broadly incentivize alternative transportation, it makes sense to include cycling in that.
Will it happen in the 116th Congress? Who knows, but if there鈥檚 one thing we do know, it鈥檚 that Blumenauer is persistent. He sought the bike-commuter benefit for years before it finally passed in 2008. Even if the current bill doesn鈥檛 make it into law, it鈥檚 a fair bet he鈥檒l be back next session for another attempt.