{"id":132900,"date":"2026-02-13T21:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132900\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T21:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:02:07","slug":"new-bill-aims-to-slash-costs-for-commuters-in-upstate-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132900\/","title":{"rendered":"New bill aims to slash costs for commuters in Upstate New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rochester, N.Y. \u2014 State Sen. Jeremy Cooney <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nysenate.gov\/legislation\/bills\/2025\/S3145\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">unveiled a new bill<\/a> Friday that aims to lower costs for commuters by authorizing the use of pre-tax earnings for the purchase of transportation benefits like bike repairs and transit passes.<\/p>\n<p>Elected officials say Monroe County commuters spend between $200 and $300 a month on expenses, including gas and tolls. <\/p>\n<p>Transit advocates say the bill would benefit employers by lowering payroll taxes and cutting monthly transportation expenses for their workers. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For those who can&#8217;t afford to own a car and have to rely on public transportation,&#8221; said Mary Staropoli, co-executive director of Reconnect Rochester. &#8220;Creating this cost-saving mechanism will make commuting to work more affordable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>JOIN THE CONVERSATION (1)<\/p>\n<p>The bill mirrors New York City&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/site\/dca\/about\/commuter-benefits-law.page\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Commuter Benefits Law<\/a>, which has been in place since 2016. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rochester, N.Y. \u2014 State Sen. Jeremy Cooney unveiled a new bill Friday that aims to lower costs for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-132900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}