Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Menendez: Transit Agencies Need Help Escaping Tax-Shelter Trap

3:57 PM EDT on June 26, 2009

Lingering questions over the role that tax shelters played in the D.C. Metro crash continue to pique congressional interest in helping local transit agencies break free of lease deals with Wall Street.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has just written to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) -- who is working on a new funding package for D.C.'s cash-strapped transit system -- urging Hoyer to look at his proposal for a windfall profits tax on banks who seek to profit from SILO deals with transit agencies.

From Menendez's letter:

The bottom line is that, in order to help prevent such a tragedy in the future, we must ensure that transit agencies have adequate resources to keep passengers safe.

As part of that, I strongly believe that we must protect transit agencies from banks who are seeking to exploit a technicality that would result in agencies having to pay banks millions of dollars that could otherwise be used to shore up equipment and ensure safe operations, even though they have not missed a single payment to the bank. Once we remove this threat, the door will be open to terminating these transactions in a fair and equitable manner.

The push to aid transit agencies caught in the SILO tax trap is likely to arise at a July 14 House hearing on this week's Metro crash.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

‘Duped’: Blowing the Whistle on an Illegal Temporary License Plate Business

Temporary license plates exist so that people who buy cars can drive them before receiving metal plates. But drivers found another use for them during the pandemic: buy a temp tag on the black market and you can keep your car anonymous and off the books.

June 9, 2023

Another Cyclist Attacked in Oakland

A passing car’s passenger assaulted cyclist David Colburn on Wednesday while he was riding his bike on San Pablo in Oakland. The passenger “…leaned out a window to intentionally smack me in the head.”

June 8, 2023

How Auto-Centric Infrastructure Is Making Us Sick

Instead of endless promises to fix America's "crumbling roads and bridges," filmmaker Andy Boenau argues we need to talk about our crumbling minds and bodies — and how our autocentric infrastructure approach contributes to them.

June 8, 2023
See all posts