"Transit users suffer a cut in US tax benefit today" by Martine Powers | Globe Staff, January 01, 2014
A tax benefit for people who take public transportation is set to shrink Wednesday, a casualty of congressional inaction and a move that some transportation advocates fear will encourage driving instead of mass transit.
Related:
"The deal buoyed Wall Street investors. Guggenheim Partners, a financial services firm, concluded that as a result overall Pentagon spending will remain relatively the same for the next several years before it begins to grow once again, at about 2.5 percent per year… A strong stock market and better business climate have continued to concentrate American wealth in the top 1 percent of earners."
Meanwhile, unemployment and food stamps are also casualties of congre$$ional inaction.
And what do they care? They are all multi-millionaires whose fortunes are derived from Wall Street investments and war stocks that kick back campaign contributions.
The credit allowed transit commuters to set aside wages in an account used exclusively for paying public transportation costs pre-tax. In 2013, the monthly benefit was $245.
What's that, $60 dollars a week? $2,500 over a year to enter as a deduction on the government shakedown, 'er, tax form?
But now, because Congress did not renew a package of federal subsidies, the benefit for public transportation users will drop to $130 per month.
Also see: Congress lets 55 tax breaks expire once again
No doubt they were all renewed in the new budget agreement -- with some additional ones added in!
At the same time, a similar credit allowed motorists for parking will increase to $250 per month. In Massachusetts, that change will primarily affect people who ride longer distances on the commuter rail.
“It just feels like state and federal forces don’t want me to take public transit anymore,” said Eric Papetti, 32, who rides the commuter rail every day from Somerville to Lowell, where he works as transportation coordinator at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
That's not it. They are just grabbing for every dollar or coin they can get their grubby, bankrupt hands on.
In advance of the expiration of $115 in monthly benefits, he has purchased a surplus of commuter rail passes to use up what’s left in his account balance. He also plans to begin starting his commuter rail journey from a station farther from his house so he will pay less for his ticket.
“This sends a terrible message,” Papetti said. “It indicates that Congress thinks people who don’t commute by car aren’t real, or don’t count. Instead, they heavily subsidize the most wasteful and inefficient transportation known to man.”
You including the war machine in there, 'cuz…. btw, I'm sick of me$$ages of imagery and illu$ion being sent or whatever in my new$paper.
The American Public Transportation Association, an organization that promotes the use of mass transit, estimated that those who take longer commutes by rail, bus, or ferry could see their annual commuting costs increase by as much as $1,380 per year.
Mantill Williams, the group’s spokesman, explained that the federal parking benefits are a permanent fixture in the tax code and automatically continue each year, increasing to match inflation.
Notice how the feds always take care of themselves and give themselves exemptions to the laws they shove down the rest of our unwilling throats?
In contrast, the benefits for those who use trains or buses are approved on a year-to-year basis. If Congress does not vote to extend the benefit, it is automatically cut nearly in half.
In recent years, renewing the transit tax benefit has been an eleventh-hour undertaking for congressional leaders, Williams said. They allowed the benefit to elapse at the beginning of 2012 and approved a renewal in March of that year. In 2013, Congress voted on Jan. 1 to extend the subsidy.
Related: Fiscal Cliff Fraud
What do you mean the tax increase on the wealthy was a tax cut?
“The federal tax code has a bias against people taking public transportation,” Williams said. “That should be eliminated.”
Get rid of it altogether I say.
There’s hope for the coming months: Congress may pass a “tax extender bill,” a package that restores a host of small-scale tax benefits that expire each year, though it’s unclear whether the extension would operate retroactively.
Hope in the broken city, pfft!
But Williams and other public transportation advocates are also hoping for a more permanent fix: legislation that would make the public transportation tax break permanent and creating parity with its driving equivalent.
Some legislators, including Representative James P. McGovern of Worcester, have sought to do exactly that, submitting bills that would equalize transit and parking benefits, and would also offer a $35-per-month tax benefit for commuting bicycle expenses or bike-share membership.
Related: Peddling the Agenda
As fa$t as they can as they jet around from limousine to limousine!
“The transit benefit is one small, but significant, piece to making commuting more affordable for millions of Americans,” McGovern said in a statement in September.
But Michael Mershon, a spokesman for McGovern, said the legislation has stalled.
Imagine my $hock and $urprise.
It remains unclear, Mershon said, whether leadership in the House of Representatives will include the transit tax break in the “extender bill,” or whether legislators will wait to incorporate the benefit into a larger tax debate that may occur later this year.
Grabbing dough again as you "wait" for what "may!"
“Frankly it has always been a struggle to try and get this through the House with current leadership,” Mershon said. “This is not something they place a high priority on.”
We know what are Congre$$'s priorities. Wall Street, Israel, the war machine, well-connected concerns and corporations, and their own lavish lifestyles funded with poor taxpayer dollar.
Stephanie Pollack, associate director at Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, said lawmakers’ lack of urgency to make the commuter tax urgent may be attributed to a perception that it affects only wealthier commuters.
That's who all tax breaks are designed for. Haven't you been listening?
“It makes Congress just think, well, it doesn’t affect that many people, or it affects people on commuter rail or ferry boats, and they’re not the poorest of the poor, so it’s OK,” Pollack said.
The amount of people affected is a red herring because that matters not when they are working for the 1%.
Related: Angry aged.
Poor old folk.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo suggested that the agency was not particularly worried about the decreasing tax benefit, saying that the primary factor affecting commuter rail ridership is reliability and quality of service. And, by some accounts, the commuter rail is still cheaper than driving….
But Pollack worried that the disappearance of this federal tax benefit would be an additional disincentive for people to ride the commuter rail, which has seen declining ridership in recent years.
“It’s the wrong sign to be sending at a time when traffic congestion is growing and we care about greenhouse gases,” Pollack said. “We should want people to be using transit.”
--more--"
And those that taketh, taketh $ome more in 21st-century AmeriKa, the pure$t fa$ci$t in all of history with the perfect melding of corporations and government thus becoming the first perfect model in corporate governance -- and it has failed miserably save for a select few at the top.
"US slices federal funds for MBTA security; Key operations not affected, officials say" by Peter Schworm | Globe Staff, September 03, 2013
Federal security funding for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has been cut in half, part of a sharp decline for the transit agency in recent years and a nationwide drop in grants to local and state authorities.
With the terror threat at an all-time high?
Officials at the MBTA said the agency applied for more than $15 million in security grants, but will receive just $3.25 million, down from $6.6 million in 2012.
The decline will not affect police staffing levels or some planned security improvements, but it means the agency cannot undertake a range of projects, such as additional security measures at stations, yards, and tunnels.
An MBTA official said he was disappointed by the drop in funding but said the agency had not counted on the money and it would not affect core operations.
“We’re pragmatic and understand the reality of the federal budget,” said Randy Clarke, the MBTA’s senior director of security and emergency management.
In 2009, the MBTA received $29 million from the Homeland Security Department, but grants have dropped since then.
This year, the department reduced grants by $74 million nationally.
“There’s less money to go around,” Clarke said.
Despite the cuts, the department allocated more than $1.5 billion to states and urban areas.
The New York transportation authority received $22.5 million, while the Bay Area transit system in California received almost $13 million. The Los Angeles transit system received $7 million, as did Chicago’s CTA.
With federal funding awarded several years ago, the MBTA established a $10 million emergency training center that opened in June. Built in an abandoned tunnel in South Boston, the center provides a replica of a train station to prepare responders for an emergency in the underground system.
Last month, Representative Bill Keating revealed the Boston area had received more than $17.5 million in total homeland security grants, an increase of nearly $7 million.
“I have consistently advocated to, at the very least, maintain homeland security funding levels because there is simply no room for cuts when it comes to preparedness,” he said in a prepared statement.
Yes, just pour endless amounts of money into tyranny based on lies.
In light of the Boston Marathon bombings in April, homeland security funding is “the last place we should be seeing cuts,” he said.
Keating, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the response to the bombings showed the value of security spending.
Maybe you should talk to your friends about the conspiracies surrounding that staged and scripted hoax.
“It was not a matter of luck or happenstance that the Boston and Watertown Police Departments and state and federal emergency response personnel were so well-prepared; it was proactive investment and painstaking training,” Keating said.
Several local agencies received smaller grants, including the Massachusetts Port Authority, the state environmental police, and the Cambridge Fire Department.
--more--"
Related: MBTA to receive Sandy recovery funds
Did they steal them like Christie did?
At least the state is giving you a tax cut:
"State income tax rate will drop slightly on Jan. 1" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, December 04, 2013
Pennies from heaven?
More like a couple of bucks from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
When the ball drops and the champagne pops to celebrate the New Year, the state will hand taxpayers a little gift: a tax cut worth enough to buy a pizza or two.
A chump change insult as they give millions away in tax subsidies to profitable bu$ine$$es and corporations.
State officials announced Wednesday that the income tax rate will automatically fall to 5.2 percent from 5.25 percent on Jan. 1. because the state collected more in taxes last year than it did this year.
Most taxpayers can expect to save about $9 to $39 next year, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Meanwhile, the tax cut will cost the state about $65 million in revenue in 2014.
I'm sure they can find $20 million or so.
The tax cut was triggered by a 2002 state law that automatically reduces the income tax rate when revenues grow according to a formula, essentially guaranteeing minor tax cuts when the economy is healthy. Legislators passed the law as a way to stop a more aggressive tax cut that Massachusetts voters had approved at the polls in 2000….
That's Ma$$achu$etts democracy for you, -- and then they lied about the economic numbers to keep the tax rate in place telling us we were growing ahead of the nation until it came time to evaluate the adjustment. Then we were told it was all wrong, and soon after we were back on the upswing.
--more--"
Nothing like a tax subsidy for well-connected bu$ine$$ intere$ts, is it?
NEXT DAY UPDATE: In an ideal world….
And those that taketh, taketh $ome more in 21st-century AmeriKa, the pure$t fa$ci$t in all of history with the perfect melding of corporations and government thus becoming the first perfect model in corporate governance -- and it has failed miserably save for a select few at the top.
"US slices federal funds for MBTA security; Key operations not affected, officials say" by Peter Schworm | Globe Staff, September 03, 2013
Federal security funding for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has been cut in half, part of a sharp decline for the transit agency in recent years and a nationwide drop in grants to local and state authorities.
With the terror threat at an all-time high?
Officials at the MBTA said the agency applied for more than $15 million in security grants, but will receive just $3.25 million, down from $6.6 million in 2012.
The decline will not affect police staffing levels or some planned security improvements, but it means the agency cannot undertake a range of projects, such as additional security measures at stations, yards, and tunnels.
An MBTA official said he was disappointed by the drop in funding but said the agency had not counted on the money and it would not affect core operations.
“We’re pragmatic and understand the reality of the federal budget,” said Randy Clarke, the MBTA’s senior director of security and emergency management.
In 2009, the MBTA received $29 million from the Homeland Security Department, but grants have dropped since then.
This year, the department reduced grants by $74 million nationally.
“There’s less money to go around,” Clarke said.
Despite the cuts, the department allocated more than $1.5 billion to states and urban areas.
The New York transportation authority received $22.5 million, while the Bay Area transit system in California received almost $13 million. The Los Angeles transit system received $7 million, as did Chicago’s CTA.
With federal funding awarded several years ago, the MBTA established a $10 million emergency training center that opened in June. Built in an abandoned tunnel in South Boston, the center provides a replica of a train station to prepare responders for an emergency in the underground system.
Last month, Representative Bill Keating revealed the Boston area had received more than $17.5 million in total homeland security grants, an increase of nearly $7 million.
“I have consistently advocated to, at the very least, maintain homeland security funding levels because there is simply no room for cuts when it comes to preparedness,” he said in a prepared statement.
Yes, just pour endless amounts of money into tyranny based on lies.
In light of the Boston Marathon bombings in April, homeland security funding is “the last place we should be seeing cuts,” he said.
Keating, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the response to the bombings showed the value of security spending.
Maybe you should talk to your friends about the conspiracies surrounding that staged and scripted hoax.
“It was not a matter of luck or happenstance that the Boston and Watertown Police Departments and state and federal emergency response personnel were so well-prepared; it was proactive investment and painstaking training,” Keating said.
Several local agencies received smaller grants, including the Massachusetts Port Authority, the state environmental police, and the Cambridge Fire Department.
--more--"
Related: MBTA to receive Sandy recovery funds
Did they steal them like Christie did?
At least the state is giving you a tax cut:
"State income tax rate will drop slightly on Jan. 1" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, December 04, 2013
Pennies from heaven?
More like a couple of bucks from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
When the ball drops and the champagne pops to celebrate the New Year, the state will hand taxpayers a little gift: a tax cut worth enough to buy a pizza or two.
A chump change insult as they give millions away in tax subsidies to profitable bu$ine$$es and corporations.
State officials announced Wednesday that the income tax rate will automatically fall to 5.2 percent from 5.25 percent on Jan. 1. because the state collected more in taxes last year than it did this year.
Most taxpayers can expect to save about $9 to $39 next year, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Meanwhile, the tax cut will cost the state about $65 million in revenue in 2014.
I'm sure they can find $20 million or so.
The tax cut was triggered by a 2002 state law that automatically reduces the income tax rate when revenues grow according to a formula, essentially guaranteeing minor tax cuts when the economy is healthy. Legislators passed the law as a way to stop a more aggressive tax cut that Massachusetts voters had approved at the polls in 2000….
That's Ma$$achu$etts democracy for you, -- and then they lied about the economic numbers to keep the tax rate in place telling us we were growing ahead of the nation until it came time to evaluate the adjustment. Then we were told it was all wrong, and soon after we were back on the upswing.
--more--"
Nothing like a tax subsidy for well-connected bu$ine$$ intere$ts, is it?
NEXT DAY UPDATE: In an ideal world….
