Aug 6, 2008 6:45 pm US/Eastern
Gas Prices Make Volunteers Reluctant To Travel
Charity Workers Struggling To Help Others With Mounting Costs
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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High gas prices are putting real pressure on people who drive in order to help others, but help may be on the way.
AP
In New York, gas prices are down, but only about 17 cents in the last month, leaving prices that remain well over $4 a gallon in many communities.
That's putting real pressure on people who drive in order to help others, but help may be on the way.
"They're more reluctant to take a distant assignment," Lois Steinberg, of the Medicare Rights Center, said. "They think twice about it."
Steinberg runs a program for volunteers who drive all around Westchester helping seniors deal with Medicare issues.
Most of her volunteers are themselves retired, and several are struggling to afford the gas to continue their charity work.
"In the whole scheme of things, it mounts up to money out of their own pocket," Steinberg said.
The market forces that drive gasoline prices are hard to predict or control, but there is now a bipartisan drive underway in Congress to fix a quirk in the tax code. The code reimburses people who use their cars for charity work at a rate much lower than people who use their cars for business.
The Corporate Mileage Reinbursement Rate is 58-and-a-half cents per mile, while the charity rate is just 14 cents per mile.
Some in Congress say it's time to increase that reimbursement to 41 cents per mile.
"I think it's a win-win for everybody," Shannon Cobb, of United Way, said. "Volunteer centers across the nation have been coming together to get behind this."
Cobb hopes Congress acts on the tax code change soon, and thinks it would significantly boost volunteers' drive to do good.
Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-N.Y.) is co-sponsoring the bill with Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.).
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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