Federal transportation tax?

Shaun just found out that he'll have to back-pay federal transportation tax on all trips to work by bus. Apparently, the government used to run the busses, but in 2002 it changed to being run by the Bruce. Soo... now the government wants $18 extra PER TRIP to be paid by each person. Bus tickets have to be purchased by the employee through their pay, so there is a record of who bought how many tickets. Fortunately, we'll only owe about $300, but there are people who rely on the bus every day to get to work, and they will owe a heck of a lot more, some in excess of $6000.

This really bothers me. It seems like such a money grab by the government and we will be forced to pay because its going onto Shaun's T4. AND its very anti-environment. If this holds up, the busses will be shut down. No one will want to pay $20 per trip (thats right, it was only $2 before) so instead, everyone will take their car and put much more exhaust into the air. With the governement encouraging every business to take the 1 ton challenge, they sure have a backhanded way of accepting a company that does. Shaun told me how much emissions the busses had saved -- it was a crazy amount, like 18M tons or something -- so thats much better than the 1 ton challenge, yet the governement is slamming people who try to make a difference.