Public Employee Press

Arbitration set on expanding transit benefit
as Obama stimulus hikes TransitChek savings

President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan allows commuters to increase the tax-free deductions for public transportation from their paychecks.

Under the city’s transit benefit for commuters who use local buses and subways, participants enrolled in the TransitChek program may now deduct up to $230 each month tax-free from their pay for transportation costs. The limit was $120 before President Obama signed the stimulus plan.

Subway and bus riders are able to save hundreds of dollars a year through the transit benefit.

The increase in the maximum allowable deduction will help express bus users and will be of particular value to members who commute on the Long Island Rail Road, Long Island MTA buses and the Metro-North Railroad — if the city implements the contract by extending the transit benefit to cover them.

Under the union’s 2005–2008 economic agreement, the city agreed to broaden the benefit to cover members who use the three regional mass transit carriers, but by late March the contract still had not been implemented.

Continuing union pressure to extend the transit benefit — including a demand for binding arbitration on the issue — led the city Office of Payroll Administration to issue a new request for proposals to find a vendor to arrange for the service. OPA officials said they hoped to select a vendor within weeks. But with no firm resolution of the issue, the union is pushing for implementation of the contract by proceeding to arbitration, said General Counsel Mary O’Connell. The first hearing was scheduled for April 2.