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NJ commuters facing higher costs as mass transit pretax benefit ends
7:46 AM, Feb. 25, 2012
WASHINGTON — Mass transit commuters will continue to get a lower pretax benefit than they did in 2011 after Congress failed again to return it to the $230 a month amount that it had been last year.
Any restoration of the old rate depends on the whims of Congress.
Efforts to include restoration of the benefit back to the $230 per month level as part of the payroll tax cut extension failed. Lawmakers and transit advocates said the next steps are to include restoration as part of the larger federal transportation funding bill and to move a separate bill that would restore the funding.
The benefit, which allows employees to pay for transit with pretax earnings, similar to a health savings plan, was reduced to $125 a month — a cut of $105 — on Jan. 1, although a similar benefit for commuter parking was increased to $240. The pretax transit benefit had been doubled from $120 to $230 through the 2009 stimulus.
https://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20120224/NJNEWS10/302240030/NJ-commuters-facing-higher-costs-mass-transit-pretax-benefit-ends?odyssey=nav%7Chead