NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. Providing parking for employees can be costly for employers. Employers can save a substantial amount of money by reducing the number of parking spaces required. According to some studies, parking cash out programs tend to reduce driving to work by twenty percent or more. For employers that offer parking subsidies, parking cash out programs allow employees to keep their subsidized parking or accept additional income. Parking cash out programs can reduce the need for employee parking and costs associated with leasing parking spaces for employees. A reduction in employee parking could reduce maintenance costs of parking areas, eliminate the need for new parking construction, and for certain employers, allow businesses to convert employee parking spaces to customer parking. The legislature therefore finds that parking cash out programs are beneficial for both employers and employees.

(a) "Parking cash out program" means an employer-funded program under which an employer offers to provide a cash allowance to an employee equivalent to the parking subsidy that the employer would otherwise provide to the employee to provide the employee with parking.

(b) "Parking subsidy" means the difference between the out-of-pocket amount paid by an employer on a regular basis to secure the availability of an employee parking space not owned by the employer and the price, if any, charged to an employee for use of that space.

(2) Subject to subsection (4) of this section, every employer that employs fifty or more employees in the state and that provides a parking subsidy to employees, must offer a parking cash out program to the employees who are provided a parking subsidy.

(3) A parking cash out program may include a requirement that employee participants certify that they will comply with guidelines established by the employer designed to avoid neighborhood parking problems, with a provision that employees not complying with the guidelines will no longer be eligible to participate in the parking cash out program.

(4) This section applies only to employers who can reduce the number of paid parking spaces the employer maintains for the use of their employees without incurring penalties from a third party leasing parking to the employer.