Reduce Employee Single-occupancy Vehicle Trips

For income tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, but before January 1, 2030, the bill creates an income tax credit (tax credit) for any employer that:

• Creates a clean commuting plan to implement strategies to increase the use of alternative transportation options and reduce the number of measurable vehicle miles driven by its employees in single-occupancy vehicles when commuting to and from their work site (clean commuting plan) for the purpose of reducing automobile-related air pollution, traffic congestion, and transportation costs, particularly for essential workers and workers earning under $40,000 per year;
• Conducts an employer commuter survey to determine how its employees commute to and from their work site; and
• Offers 2 or more alternative transportation options to some or all of its employees in furtherance of the employer's clean commuting plan.

The amount of the tax credit is 50% of the amount spent by the employer to provide alternative transportation options to some or all of its employees.

In addition, the bill requires the executive director of the department of transportation (director), in coordination with the Colorado energy office and metropolitan planning organizations, to create an annual commuter survey for employers to use to determine how their employees commute to and from their work site. The director and the Colorado energy office are required to determine the content of the commuter survey and the form and manner in which the commuter survey will be completed and returned to the department of transportation.

Beginning in specified calendar years, in an effort to reduce the number of employees who commute to and from their work site in a single-occupancy vehicle, employers with over 100 employees are required to:

• Annually conduct a commuter survey of its employees and submit the completed commuter surveys to the department of transportation by April 30 of the year in which the survey was conducted;
• Offer its employees qualified transportation fringe benefits allowed pursuant to federal law;
• Offer its employees commuter choice information in electronic or hard copy format and update the information every 6 months; and
• Offer a cash allowance in lieu of a parking space under certain circumstances.

The bill requires that any private sector employer that wishes to claim the tax credit participate in the employer commuter survey and submit the results of the survey to the department by April 30 of the year in which the survey is conducted, even if the employer's participation in the commuter survey is not otherwise required.

For the 2023-24 state fiscal year, and for each state fiscal year thereafter through the 2029-30 state fiscal year, of the money allocated to the transportation commission for state multimodal projects from the multimodal transportation and mitigation options fund, the transportation commission is required to allocate $250,000 to each of the transportation management associations and transportation management organizations operating in a nonattainment area for the purposes of assisting employers in creating a clean commuting plan and complying with the requirements of the bill.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)