Monday, October 6, 2008

Congress Passes Bailout, Includes Bicycle Commuter Tax Act

These past couple weeks has been pretty crazy weeks, for everyone... on pretty much the entire planet. The DOW saw a historic drop, and banks nationwide are falling apart like a high maintenance trophy wife who can't find her American Express Black Card. While all of this was going on Americans are wondering what the hell happened and how the hell we got here... I have an idea as to what the root of this whole problem might be, but this isn't a political blog, so I'll keep my ideas to myself.

Through out all of this madness, there were some silver linings, and one of those was a big fat silver lining for bicycle commuters. Various news outlets and bloggers have been reporting the news that the Bicycle Commuter Tax Act was passed, so I've included the link to Bike Portland.org here in so you can read it on their website if you don't want to take my word for it. Basically the bicycle commuter tax act gives tax incentives to those who have employees who ride their bikes and those employees can get a $20 credit for riding their bikes.

Now a lot of ninnies on capital hill and the AM airwaves who like to call programs they don't like that get federal funding "Pork" have things to say about this; but really what this does is put bicycle commuters in the same place as those who take public transportation like buses or trains, as commuters who use public transportation already have a tax credit available to them. Really, bicycle commuters, although not using the traditional commuting lines, are commuting, and are able now to take advantage of the same credits issued to other commuters. While some will say that we're all of a sudden getting some unfair advantage, in reality we're just getting a fair cut.

1 comment:

dawn garcia said...

I have a pretty good idea yours is right on:)!!