Stimulus Bike

Senate Amendment Aims To Nix All Bike Funding

Written by Andy

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), chair of the Senate Steering Committee, has proposed an amendment to the stimulus bill that would prohibit any funding of bicycle infrastructure from this bill. He was supported by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) who is known for his opposition to bicycle lanes and paths.

"When people see bike trails and hiking trails and golf courses, they know this is not designed to stimulate the economy and create jobs. It’s just basically special-interest pork barrel spending."

Blumenauer rebuts DeMint's statement with this:

"Republican amendments and assertions that the creation of hike and bike trails in the recovery plan will not create jobs or stimulate the economy shows us just short-sighted and out of touch they are. Investment in bike paths will not only improve our economy, and take our country in the right direction for our future; it is precisely the kind of investment the American people want. American families have indicated time and again in the passage of bond measures across the country that they favor spending on alternative transportation, such as bicycles and mass transit, over spending on more highway capacity. Americans want a real solution to the economic crisis, not just a band-aid fix. These investments will stimulate the economy in the present and point our nation toward the economic and environmental realities of the future."

Here is what it means to Americans: While about 16 million of 330 million Americans use bikes, and even fewer of those use them regularly for commuting or errands, bikes are a viable form of transportation that is quickly gaining support in many major cities. Surely spending a million dollars on a bike lane in a rural area is not a smart investment, but creating a network of livable streets in urban environments is. Currently, the stimulus bill has a lot of funding for highways, which has few restrictions and may go towards building and expanding highways. Fixing our existing infrastructure is a good idea, but that doesn't mean adding more lanes or more routes for cars, it means fixing old bridges and repairing roads that desperately need it.

President Obama and his administration have made a strong commitment to finding solutions for climate change, reducing our use of non-renewable resources, and improving Americans' health. Any attempt to improve our population centers to accommodate public transit, pedestrians, and cyclists is a good step towards those solutions. We need to prepare our economy and way of life for a sustainable future, and highway expansion or restricting bicycle infrastructure is a major step in the wrong direction.

In the past year, we saw gas prices over $4 a gallon across most of the country. Car sales plummeted 30% and America's major car manufacturers are in dire trouble just trying to stay afloat in this economy and even overseas manufacturers like Toyota are now struggling. Many transit programs saw major increases in ridership this past summer, but still lack the proper funding to expand service. Bicycle infrastructure is the cheapest, most effective way to get people around without causing environmental harm. To think that this is somehow a detriment to creating jobs or helping our economy is just an ignorant excuse for wanting to get around in cars more. But we need to face the facts: Personal vehicles, for single-occupant use, will one day be a thing of the past. Gas prices will go up, fewer people will drive as more take buses, trains, and live closer to work to walk and bike for their commutes, and infrastructure costs for maintaining this enormous highway system will overwhelm the economy. Let's make good decisions now before we waste billions finding out that more highways doesn't help our economy.

Sources: League of American Bicyclists, Bike Portland, Streetsblog

The Bicycle and the Economic Stimulus Plan

Written by Lee Norris

The Senate republicans want a tax break for the purchase of new cars in 2009 as part of the economic stimulus package. The amendment would allow individuals buying new cars with financing and write off the interest. This tax break does not include a purchase of used vehicles either. The amendment would also let buyers claim the state excise tax. This is a tax break for the wealthy who can afford to buy a new car each year. For the average consumer, the cost of financing a new car out weights any tax benefits. During recession, financing has traditionally been harder to obtain for lower and medium income people.

Just a few months ago, the agenda in congress was weaning this country off of its dependence to foreign oil. Now that the price of crude is down and economy is crashing, the problem of dependence to foreign oil has slipped onto the back burner. The problems of importing oil and the trade imbalance has been around for the past 50 years. If we do not do something about this problem during this recession, then it will come back again in times of prosperity. These problems will most likely be worse in the future.

Why not give tax credits for purchasing new bicycles or for cycling to and from work as part of the economic stimulus package? In the United States on an average, half the car trips made are under three miles. This country consumes around 22 millions of barrels of oil a day. A large percentage of that oil could be saved each day by using bicycles as transportation on these short trips. if only 25% Americans would cycle on trips 5 miles and under, the social benefits to the country would be enormous. Two of the most expensive problems facing Americans today are rising health care costs and arresting greenhouse gases. Cycling makes people slim and healthy, and there are no greenhouse gas emissions to cycling. Cycling is better than tax credits for the economy. The Money saved at the pumps is more cash for the consumer to spend. With a tax credit, the consumer has to wait until they get their tax return. Cycling saves consumers money all the time there by stimulating the economy faster.

Recessions are times of re-tooling for the next round of prosperity and rethinking the way we do things. If all Americans do is buy new cars to stimulate the economy, we will pay for it later. This is just more of the old squirrel cage economy that got us into this economic mess in in the first place. In effect, what we are asking future generations is to finance our expensive life style today. Is that all there is to the economic stimulus package?

Stimulus Bill Passes with Amendments in the House

The House amended and passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan but still without support from republicans. House democrats drafted the bill, as President Barack Obama urged for a bill that would receive support from both parties, but even with some parts catering more towards republican wants, there were no votes support from the party. The final vote was 244 to 188. Obama is still hoping for a few more changes to get support all around: "I hope that we can continue to strengthen this plan before it gets to my desk... We must move swiftly and boldly to put Americans back to work, and that is exactly what this plan begins to do." The bill as passed by the House includes $607 billion for infrastructure and other direct spending measures, and $212 billion in tax cuts. Earlier predictions for the tax cuts were much higher, and republicans wanted to see less spending and more tax cuts. While overall it appears that this bill will help American's keep and create jobs there is a lot of room for improvement still. Let's hope that the Senate can make that happen.

Making Work Pay Credit
Under the Ways and Means Committee, the details of the Making Work Pay Credit are still unchanged fromthe draft version. American's can expect to receive 6.2 percent of earned income or $500 ($1,000 in the case of a joint return) whichever is lower. The specifics on how this will work are still not clear, but it is apparent that this will come in the form of reduce tax withholdings over 4 months time. This amounts to around $60 per paycheck.

Stimulus Bike
So far Stimulus Bike has about 40 people make the pledge to use their tax credits towards supporting bikes either for themselves or others. This website has been featured on more than 15 other blogs now and issteadily receiving hits. Thanks for helping this resource grow! Even if you stumbled across this site just looking for stimulus details, click around and check out our resources, supported petitions, and the pledge.

Stimulus Bill: From the House to the Senate

The stimulus bill draft by the House has been floating around for us to see, and unfortunately showed a stronger support for highways than public transit and finding ways to create jobs without expanding unnecessary pieces of our infrastructure. Past projects to add roads to ease congestion have - in almost every circumstance - resulted in the same congestion problems. That's why it is so unfortunate to see the House asking for $30 billion to go towards highways while only $10 billion going towards public transit. The argument that comes up is that roads and bridges are sub-par and in desperate need of funding to be fixed. In reality, stimulus money that is headed for roadways can easily be advertised as fix-up projects, but then be spent on adding a new lane in attempts to ease congestion. This is exactly why we should be looking to alternatives to expanding highways, such as trains, buses, and livable streets - places where we can walk and bike and be part of traffic instead of a nuisance to traffic.

Recently the Senate posted a press release online outlining their plans for the stimulus bill. The transportation part is as follows:

- $27 billion for formula highway investments.
- $8.4 billion for formula investments in public transportation.
- $5.5 billion for competitive grants to state and local governments for surface transportation investments.
- $1.3 billion for investments in our air transportation system.
- $1.1 billion for investments in rail transportation.

So highway funding has dropped $3 billion, but transit has also reduced a significant percentage from $9 billion to $8.4 billion. Consider Oberstar's original call for $20 billion needed for transit related projects, and $8.4 billion (although still a heck of a lot of money) is pennies compared to what it should be.

Keep an eye out for details on the new $5.5 billion for competitive grants for surface transportation. The Senate Appropriations website has no further details at this time than the press release, which does not go in depth on this portion of the bill. There is a good chance that this could go towards projects to make 2-wheeled transportation get more notice, but it is all chances at this point. Check out the PDF of the press release from the Senate Appropriations website.

Support Stimulus Bike

Now that we have a new president, information about the stimulus plan and the tax act will be hitting the news more often and with much more depth as it progresses. Stimulus Bike will post all of the latest updates, straight from their sources. You can rely on us to translate the "legalese" documents into plain English so that you know exactly what to expect in the coming months.

Our website and blog are quickly growing, and we hope to grow even faster. You can subscribe to the blog feeds by clicking the orange RSS icon on the right, so that you get updates as soon as we post them. If you have friends, family, or co-workers that are interested in putting their stimulus tax cuts to good use, email them a link to the site!

Want to help out? Stimulus Bike is currently seeking a blog writer and an outreach coordinator. Email us at [email protected] if you are interested in volunteering your time. We are also accepting donations, in any amount, to pay for web hosting and upcoming features such as polls and email campaigns. You can donate by PayPal using this button.

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure LIVE Thursday 10am

Thursday, January 22 at 10:00am there is a live webcast of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Infrastructure Investment: Ensuring an Effective Economic Recovery Package
This hearing will "examine how infrastructure investment contributes to job creation and economic recovery. The hearing will address infrastructure across the Committee's jurisdiction, including highways, bridges, public transportation, rail, aviation, ports, waterways, wastewater treatment facilities, and Federal buildings." - according to their press release.

We're hoping for more talk on public transportation and less support for expanding our highways. Isn't Stimulus Bikes about cycling and not public transportation though? Well, it's a fact that when a city has more ways of getting around, that cycling becomes safer and more popular. For example, when cities can expand their bus service, they can also add bike racks on the front of the buses as they do in many cities. Some cities also allow a special lane for buses and bikes to share. This allows urban cyclists to get around by bike for shorter distances, and hop on the bus to get further or up hills. Teamwork!

The House's Transportation website has a button to click tomorrow at 10am to tune into the live webcast. Check it out here >>

Details on the "Making Work Pay" Tax Credit

American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009
Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) of the House Committee on Ways and Means has released details of the tax breaks and other benefits. This will be formally introduced within the next few days. Read what Chairman Rangel said about the benefits involved:

"The critical state of our economy calls for swift, comprehensive action and this package will provide relief to all communities and all sectors of the American economy. This recovery package will provide tremendous tax relief, health care and job training benefits for families struggling to make ends meet, while also giving businesses the boost they need to create new jobs. We have also designed specific provisions to help State and local governments fund critical infrastructure projects to improve our roads, schools, bridges and airports, while also maintaining and creating good-paying jobs for working families. This package was developed with strong coordination between the House and Senate leaders, President-elect Obama and his economic team. I look forward to working with all parties involved toward a swift passage."

The Specifics
You can download the 6 page Summary [PDF] or read the full text 328 page version if you are fluent in legalese. Download the full version here [PDF]. A portion of the tax relief summary is below:

TAX RELIEF INCLUDED IN "THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT PLAN"
Summary: The tax provisions included in "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" will provide approximately $275 billion in tax relief for individuals, businesses, and State and local governments.
Making Work Pay" tax credit. The bill would cut taxes for more than 95% of working families in the United States. For 2009 and 2010, the bill would provide a refundable tax credit of up to $500 for working individuals and $1,000 for working families. This tax credit would be calculated at a rate of 6.2% of earned income, and would phase out for taxpayers with adjusted gross income in excess of $75,000 ($150,000 for married couples filing jointly). Taxpayers can receive this benefit through a reduction in the amount of income tax that is withheld from their paychecks, or through claiming the credit on their tax returns. This proposal is estimated to cost $145.309 billion over 10 years.

A Draft of the Economic Stimulus Package Released

After much anticipation of finding out what the stimulus package may include, an official draft has been published at the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations [PDF]. This version estimates $275 billion in economic recovery tax cuts and $550 billion in priority investments. A much easier to read press summary is posted here [PDF]). Here are the highlights of transportation funding:

Modernize Roads, Bridges, Transit and Waterways To build a 21st century economy, we must engage contractors across the nation to create jobs - rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing public buildings, and putting people to work cleaning our air, water, and land. Highway Infrastructure: $30 billion for highway and bridge construction projects. It is estimated that states have over 5,100 projects totaling over $64 billion that could be awarded within 180 days. These projects create jobs in the short term while saving commuters time and money in the long term. In 2006, the Department of Transportation estimated $8.5 billion was needed to maintain current systems and $61.4 billion was needed to improve highways and bridges. Transit: Public transportation saves Americans time and money, saving as much as 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline and reducing carbon emissions by 37 million metric tons each year. [Earlier the article cites, "$10 billion for transit and rail to reduce traffic congestion and gas consumption."] New Construction: $1 billion for Capital Investment Grants for new commuter rail or other light rail systems to increase public use of mass transit and to speed projects already in construction. The Federal Transit Administration has $2.4 billion in pre-approved projects. Upgrades and Repair: $2 billion to modernize existing transit systems, including renovations to stations, security systems, computers, equipment, structures, signals, and communications. Funds will be distributed through the existing formula. The repair backlog is nearly $50 billion. Transit Capital Assistance: $6 billion to purchase buses and equipment needed to increase public transportation and improve intermodal and transit facilities. The Department of Transportation estimates a $3.2 billion maintenance backlog and $9.2 billion in needed improvements. The American Public Transportation Association identified 787 ready-to-go transit projects totaling $15.5 billion. Funds will be distributed through the existing formulas. Amtrak and Intercity Passenger Rail Construction Grants: $1.1 billion to improve the speed and capacity of intercity passenger rail service. The Department of Transportation's Inspector General estimates the North East Corridor alone has a backlog of over $10 billion.

The tax cuts will hopefully allow Americans to spend their share on useful goods and services, and what better to put that towards than biking! The funding for other transportation projects looks bleak though - mainly calling for more highways, which is exactly the opposite of what we need. America is slowly growing in transportation options, and many people are living with less cars or at least hoping to. How about some funding for cycling projects that cities desperately need?