Schumer sends warning on commuter benefit

A pretax benefit that gives Long Island Rail Road commuters and other public-transit users a monthly price break will expire Dec. 31 unless the program is extended, Sen. Charles Schumer warned Monday.

Schumer (D-N.Y.), at a news conference at Grand Central Terminal, said about 500,000 people in the metropolitan area get the commuter benefit, which now covers up to $230 a month -- deducted from a person's gross salary -- to pay for their commuting costs. An individual signs up for the program through his or her employer; businesses register with Tran-sitChek, a nonprofit group that administers the program. "The last thing we should be doing in this economy is making it more expensive for New Yorkers to get to work," Schumer said.

The benefit saves commuters more than $1,000 a year, he said, and is similar to the tax-free parking benefit drivers get. If the program expires at year's end, the benefit for riders of public transit would be lowered to $120 a month -- the level it was in 2009. Schumer said he wants to make the $230 pretax benefit permanent.

For example, he said, if the program expires, the pretax reduction for a person commuting from Garden City to Penn Station would be $56 a month as opposed to $230 monthly.

To enroll, the employee chooses how much pretax salary to use to pay for commuting costs, said Charles Kim of TransitChek. The employee then receives their "ticket product, such as a debit card or voucher that will allow them to purchase their commuting tickets and passes with their tax-free dollars," Kim said.

The program is open to commuters on the LIRR, Metro-North Railroad, city subways and buses, and express buses. About 15,000 companies in the metropolitan area offer the transit benefit, Schumer and Kim said.

Commuter Evelyn Chassagne, 42, of West Hempstead, said she has used the program in the past, but her new employer doesn't offer it.

"I have to educate him about it," Chassagne, a medical officer manager, said as she waited for her train Monday afternoon at Penn Station.

Chassagne said when she used the TransitChek program with her former employer, "I didn't feel the cost of my commuter pass each month. I'd get the ticket in the mail and use it. Now, I feel the cost when I pay for it out of pocket. It really stings."

But for Mark Waldorf, 59, of East Norwich, who sells technology, the pretax deduction is not a big savings.

"It sounds nice. But it's coming out of my gross pay," he said. "In the end, I never see that money. I would prefer the LIRR not raise the rates $20 every year."