Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: THE FEDERAL DIARY=No Subsidy Windfall=By Mike Causey=Washington Post Staff Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 05:02:45 EST Message-ID: <52.1992Nov16.050246@AmeriCast.com> THE FEDERAL DIARY=No Subsidy Windfall=By Mike Causey=Washington Post Staff Writer= Some federal workers are excited because the tax-free public transportation subsidy Uncle Sam could give them will go from $21 to $60 a month in 1993. They see the higher subsidy as a way to unclog the area's highways at rush hour and reduce pollution from automobiles. But few federal agencies are expected to give workers the higher subsidy, according to a study by the General Accounting Office. More than 18,000 Washington area federal workers in 75 agencies now get $4.5 million a year in transit subsidies. Most agencies purchase Farecards or packets of tokens and give them to employ- ees who promise to take public transportation to work. A few agencies give employees $21-a-month transit subsidy checks. The price tag would soar to $13 million if all the employees got the $60-a-month subsidy. The GAO's study said that about 37 percent of the employees in agencies that offer the subsidy receive it. The GAO made its study so that Congress can decide whether to continue the program after next year. The transit subsidy isn't limited to federal workers or to the Washington area. Federal workers in Colorado and Oregon get a transit subsidy, and the GAO said that 20 federal agencies in 15 other cities also give employees some subsidy. A large number of other employers - many of them local governments - give employees subsidies here, but none provides the full $21 a month. Employers, in theory, can give workers any amount they want as a transit subsidy. But under Internal Revenue Service rules any- thing more than $21 a month this year, or $60 a month starting in 1993, makes the entire amount taxable income to the recipient. A few agencies dedicated to mass transit, clean air and unclogged highways may raise their monthly subsidy. One or two may even give employees the full $60 a month. But as a government-wide perk, it is unlikely because most agencies don't have the money or won't want to spend it on transit subsidies.Early-Outs The Of- fice of Personnel Management has approved early retirement for many at the Federal Emergency Management Administration headquar- ters. The early-out (at age 50 with 20 years' service or any age with 25 years' service) runs through Dec. 31. FEMA estimates that 94 of its 1,804 headquarters employees may be hit by layoffs. The Federal Communications Commission also has the early-out green light at its headquarters here. It expects that 129 of its 1,296 headquarters staff members may be laid off and that 14 of the 210 eligible for early retirement will take it. The early-out runs through March 12 and also covers the Gettysburg, Pa., field office. Workers who take discontinued service retirements, as outlined here yesterday, will be able to take lump-sum pension payments next year and roll them over into individual retirement accounts. Payments taken this year will be subject to taxes when re- ceived.<02:50 11-16C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)