After releasing a summary of proposed special waste fees at a public meeting on St. Croix on Wednesday, V.I. Waste Management Authority officials were hammered with concerns Thursday from business owners on St. Thomas, who said that they are already overtaxed and would be forced – if the fees are approved – to pass the cost on to consumers.
The public meetings on all three islands – St. John’s meeting is Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Legislative conference room – are designed to get residents’ input on the fee schedule, which VIWMA said it will be submitting to the Public Services Commission by the end of the month. The fees, being proposed on imported items ranging from tires to televisions, will help the authority generate its own revenues and become a self-sustaining agency instead of relying on funds from the government, officials have said.
"Our business cannot be run unless we have the ability to charge for our services. Everybody in the U.S. pays for solid waste," said VIWMA Executive Director May Adams Cornwall at Thursday’s meeting at the Windward Passage Hotel. "We have to capture those revenues somewhere and, if it doesn’t happen, we have to eliminate service, maybe even privatize service."
Cornwall said that the fees will help to cover the cost of "education, administration and enforcement," which business owners agreed was needed to help cut down on littering throughout the island.
Cornwall said current enforcement fines bring in less than $100,000 a year (the initial fine for a first offense is $1,000,) which is not enough to cover the authority’s costs – especially since many residents complain about the fee and many judges choose not to enforce it.
But business owners voiced concerns Thursday that the proposed fee schedule does not necessarily cover the cost of disposal for items such as tires, which have to be shipped off-island. Tire retailers attending the meeting, including Rodriguez Auto Parts owner Enrique Rodriguez, said if disposal is not included, then businesses have no choice but to double charge the regular consumer coming in to change their tires – making them cover not only the VIWMA’s special waste fee but also the dealer’s charge for disposal.
If that happens, customers might eventually take their business elsewhere – opting, for example, to order online – and then dispose of the tires in whatever way they can, business owners said. And while Cornwall said during the meeting that hundreds of thousands of tires are being illegally dumped and removed from St. Croix and maybe even more on St. Thomas, business owners said the number will increase if consumers are forced to pay more.
Working off of Cornwall’s explanations, one business owner described the proposed fees as "bureaucratic and difficult."
"The business community is severely impacted by the import taxes, container taxes, gross receipts taxes and others, and I believe as a community, we’re all going to be impacted by this," another business owner said. "We bring in the products, but if you’re going to increase the landed cost of the product, the costs are also going to go up for the consumer."
"Correct," Cornwall replied. "I think the consumers are going to be impacted and we’re all consumers here, but the consumers are also the same people who have a problem with the refrigerators at the side of the road, the tires and poor health conditions, so improving the environment helps supports your business."
Speaking later, Cornwall said the proposal could change before it is submitted to the PSC, but if it is not approved, then V.I. Waste Management would have to shut down most of its services.
"In the current situation we’re in with our budget, unless that gets resolved, we’re going to stop our programs if we don’t collect the fees," Cornwall said. "The only thing we’re going to be able to do is what is federally funded. If we don’t have the local funds, then we can send people home, but that won’t stop the problem."
Specifically the fees being sought by VIWMA once these items enter the territory include:
– $3 for Class 1 tires weighing less than 35 pounds;
– $6 for Class 2 tires weighing greater than 35 pounds;
– 50 cents per foot for fluorescent linear bulbs;
– $15 for televisions;
– $20 for floor stand fax/copier machines;
– $12.50 for computer servers and notebooks;
– $7.50 for desktop print, fax, copy and scan machines;
– $3 for telephones and cell phones;
– $3 for camcorders and recording devices;
– $10 for small Freon white goods and appliances (refrigerator) and $20 for large Freon units. A non-Freon unit (i.e. a washing machine) would be $10;
– and 50 cents per gallon for lubricating oils.
The plan also includes a fee for people to start paying for the disposal of their automobiles. The fee will be 15 percent of the vehicle’s annual registration fee as long as the car is registered in the territory. Officials have said there could also be a grace period implemented with the fees so to give importers a chance to get ahead with their existing inventory.
"We also need your input on that," Cornwall added. “We’re hoping that the retailers would tell us what kind of grace periods are necessary for the products they sell.”
Cornwall said the authority would support and propose legislation that would make the fees exempt from gross receipts.
When did Waste Management become a business?
“Our business cannot be run unless we have the ability to charge for our services. Everybody in the U.S. pays for solid waste”.
That is a very scary statement. Every community I’ve visited in the states had waste pickup at the curbside. There is usually a tipping fee at the dumpsite and once a month there is a pickup for large items and appliances.
If Waste Management is going to act like a business, then they need to become consumer friendly and they should have competition from private enterprise.
There should be provisions for private pickup and like a validated parking ticket, you should be able to show you have a licensed Waste Pickup service.
It would be an excellent start-up for a Virgin Islander. Start out with a small, fuel efficient truck that could pick up trash barrels without getting out of the truck. Have another truck with a lift that goes around picking up large items.. That’s employment for 5 people right off the bat. More trucks, more employees!
The customer can carry a card they receive with every payment he or she makes, that allows for a deduction when they purchase all of those things WMA has decided we need to charge for. Who knows, we may actually get a recycleing program started.
Government is not in the business of operating like a business. WMA charges for services and maintenance, but they shouldn’t be making a profit and they shouldn’t be making enough to become inefficient.
The more I ponder this, the more saddened I become. WMA has taken over quite a lot of the bin pickups that used to go to private enterprise. They instituted a fee for tire disposal, but have no method of compacting or grinding and baling them. There is no accounting for this surcharge and now they want to place the burden on someone else to collect the money.
The complaint about litter and Judges not enforcing the fines. Where are these litter police when they’re not sitting by the bins, fining people who at least try and put their waste in bins rather than guts? Why isn’t there a bin for appliances?
I can go to a gut and find a full garbage bag and with little investigation, find a way of identifying the individual that threw it there. I would go to Tire Dealerships or shops and mark every tire indelibly and then I could track down the culprit if I find them in the bush. Enforcement shouldn’t pay for itself, but it should try and bring a halt to illegal dumping. When I say illegal dumping, I don’t mean throwing a table in a bin. That’s uneducated dumping and should be a warning, not a ticket or the next time, the table will be in the bush.
The more money we give WMA, the bigger their Kingdom grows and the more it’s going to cost every day.
Why are we still allowing non-degradable grocery bags and Styrofoam food containers? Let’s charge for them and watch them disappear.
Waste Mismanagement Authority has been trying for YEARS to figure out how to tax us all into oblivion.
Their last salvo, a few years back, was to tax everything coming into the VI, at full weight(instead of empty weight which is what they’d be disposing) and would have created a huge customs nightmare as testified to. They wasted our tax dollars by paying $1M to a consulting service to create this plan for them only to have such a huge public outraged, outcry that PSC denied them.
They have had years to implement recycling and have had offers of “free help” to do so and you see what we get! Nothing but more innovative ways to make us pay thru the nose for their ineptitude, inefficiency and lack of ability.
How about a real waste management plan before even discussing fees?
A friend said,”By assessing fees to a public that largely can’t afford any higher costs of living, she is assuring one of 2 outcomes: illegal dumping and more environmental pollution; or continued exodus from the territory by residents.”
I agree.
WMA needs to be disbanded and put back under Public Works.
Our islands were much cleaner before this quasi government entity was created and they need to be recycled into the closest dumpster.
WMA….The Waste Money Agency. It is incredible!!!!!
WMA wants to impose a fee for items imported into the Territory but not be responsible for the disposal of same
items.
WOW!!!!!! We must live in OZ. So when I buy an electronic device, a refrigerator or tire, included in the price will be a WMA surcharge, but when I need to dispose of it, I will have to pay WMA, a private hauler or a tire shop another amount to dispose of that item.
Hopefully, PSC will see that this an unfair burden to the consumers in the Territory. Get with the rest of the country…charge a tipping fee or fees at DMV. Then WMA can hire private contractors or do it itself.
Why has WMA spent millions with consultants? They did not need to reinvent the wheel, just look at other successful waste management programs throughout the country. In Florida, tire dealers must charge a mandatory disposal fee. Therefore, there is no incentive to take that tire and dump it on the side of the highway. Throughout the country metal salvage companies collect all types of electronics and appliances and make money.
WMA is just a WASTE.
It would seem to me that a better solution than imposing additional fees that only perpetuate an already inefficient bureaucracy, WMA would better serve the citizens of the Territory by implementing recycling programs. In the past there have been entrepreneurs who tried to set up a glass recycling depot, a tire shredding operation, and other programs that would have reduced and recycled waste to a good purpose. What happened to these fine folks? They were stymied at every turn by our government bureaucracy until they had to take a loss and close up shop before ever really getting off the ground. This is reprehensible.
WMA needs to step up to the plate and take on the tire shredding operation and the glass recycling operation – both of these resources can be used as additives for asphalt to fix our deplorable roads. Instead of applying punitive fees for disposing of appliances, WMA should be recycling them for the steel and other components that have marketable value. Put people to work sorting and breaking down these items and reclaim what is usable.
Why do we allow plastic bags to be dispensed like peanuts at every store in the Territory? They are a blight on the landscape and wholly unnecessary. Paper bags are degradable and cloth bags are reusable time and time again. Put a stiff fee on plastic bags.
Our landscape is littered with plastic drink bottles and aluminum cans. Put a fee on those containers like the National Parks ahve and you’ll see a dramatic reduction in litter and generate some income. Let WMA handle the fees and the recycling of these containers, and they will realize more income than from their confiscatory fees.
Make it feasible for people to dispose of their used motor oil in a place where WMA can collect it and submit it for either re-refining or incorporation into asphalt or use it to fire incinerators for other burnable waste.
This isn’t rocket science – just common sense.