Photo by Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie.

Today, interim WMATA General Manager Richard Sarles passed along some distressing news for those who use Metro to commute to work in the District every day: allocations for pre-tax SmartBenefits maximums are about to be cut, nearly in half. Due to changes mandated by the federal government, the maximum allowable monthly allocation will decrease from $230 to $120 and commuters will no longer be able to bunch transit and parking benefits together. The change will go into effect on January 1, 2011.

The limit on benefits had been raised to $230 as a provision of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The elimination of the mixing of parking and transit benefits is due to a new Internal Revenue Service regulation requiring the separation of the two benefits into different accounts.

WMATA Board Chairman Peter Benjamin was disappointed with the changes, stating that they would “reduce flexibility and make it harder for our passengers,” and that they were “not something [WMATA] thought up.”

According to WMATA spokesperson Ron Holzer, 285,000 employees around the D.C. region are currently enrolled in SmartBenefits, and at least 90,000 (that’s more than 30 percent) allocate more than $120 per month. Commuters aren’t the only ones who will be hurt by the changes — Metro estimates that they stand to lose up to $10 million in revenue as a result of the reduction.