ST. THOMAS —\u00a0Senators Tregenza Roach and Nereida Rivera-O\u2019Reilly have teamed up on a bill that provides\u00a0energy assistance to low-income seniors and the disabled by\u00a0utilizing revenue generated by the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) through late charges and reconnection fees, a press release Mr. Roach’s office issued yesterday has revealed.<\/p>\n
At a recent Committee on Finance hearing on WAPA\u2019s budget, Mr. Roach said he\u00a0learned that in the past fiscal year, the semi-autonomous entity collected $3.1 Million in \u201cother \u00a0revenues\u201d.<\/p>\n
When Mr. Roach inquired about the source of the other stream of revenue, WAPA officials reported that the line item consisted largely of late fees and\u00a0fees related to disconnection of utilities.<\/p>\n
“I was always\u00a0concerned about these penalties collected by WAPA but had never seen the amount\u00a0quantified. It troubled me that such a large amount of money is being collected from\u00a0the same people who can least afford WAPA\u2019s services,” Mr. Roach said.<\/p>\n
Upon discussing the matter with Mrs. Rivera-O\u2019Reilly, Mr. Roach said she was\u00a0equally outraged and they moved immediately to collaborate on the drafting points for\u00a0legislation.<\/p>\n
The senators agreed that the best use for these funds would be to\u00a0allocate them to the Energy Crisis Assistance Program (ECAP) under the\u00a0Department of Human Services. The ECAP program assists the elderly and disabled\u00a0persons to maintain their utility services.<\/p>\n
Mr. Roach said he believes that WAPA will not be adversely affected by\u00a0diverting these funds to the ECAP program where they will be better utilized to\u00a0assist those in need.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not funds that WAPA should be anticipating, so they should not be\u00a0budgeted or counted upon by WAPA to address any critical need,\u201d Mr. Roach, an Independent legislator, concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ST. THOMAS —\u00a0Senators Tregenza Roach and Nereida Rivera-O\u2019Reilly have teamed up on a bill that provides\u00a0energy assistance to low-income seniors and the disabled by\u00a0utilizing revenue generated by the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) through late charges and reconnection fees, a press release Mr. Roach’s office issued yesterday has revealed. At a recent Committee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[191,2474,147],"tags":[1030,3785,1741,3786,2133],"yoast_head":"\n