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Parking Cash-Out Law
Article Overview
California law requires certain employers who provide subsidized parking for their employees to offer a cash subsidy to employees who do not drive, in lieu of a parking space. This law is known as the "parking cash-out" program. The intent of the law is to reduce or remove any differential incentive that exists, favoring driving over other forms of transportation, such as taking transit, biking, walking or carpooling to work.
The law was first passed in 1992, but due to unfavorable tax consideration, was widely unused until 1998, when the tax code was amended to allow the parking cash-out payments to be deductible as business expenses, in the same way that paying to provide a parking space for an employee would be. Unfortunately, because the law applies only to a small subset of employers (those employers who lease or rent their parking spaces, and who can reduce their parking expenses on a space-by-space basis to compensate for the cost of paying the parking cash out), the law has not been enforced aggressively anywhere in California, with most enforcement taking place only on an employee complaint basis.
ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
REFERENCES
Each source is referred to by the same number every time it is cited. Please keep citation style consistent.
[1] California Air Resources Board
[2] UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies Report (2002)
FURTHER READING
- The High Cost of Free Parking (Donald Shoup, 2005)
