{"id":39553,"date":"2016-05-18T10:20:23","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T10:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=39553"},"modified":"2016-05-18T10:20:23","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T10:20:23","slug":"quick-note-bill-looking-raise-car-rental-tax-tabled-finance-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39553","title":{"rendered":"Bill Looking To Raise Car Rental Tax Tabled In Finance Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. CROIX — The Committee on Finance on Tuesday unanimously tabled a bill that sought to raise taxes on car rentals<\/a><\/span>\u00a0by adding what the bill describes as a \u201ccommunity surcharge\u201d of $3.75, intended to be allocated to the Government Employees\u2019 Retirement System.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery person who rents a drive-yourself car in the Virgin Islands, in addition to paying the motor vehicle rental surcharge imposed under section 425, shall pay a $3.75 per day community surcharge for each rental,\u201d reads an amended version of the bill, found here<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Leaders in the car rental sector descended on\u00a0the Fritz E. Lawaetz Legislative Hall here, determined to get their point across that the measure would stifle already struggling car rental businesses. Car rental company owners and their representatives said while the measure seems to be aimed at tourists to the territory based on the notion that most vehicles are rented by visitors, locals make up a great portion of their sales — between 20-40 percent, according to testifiers.<\/p>\n

In a letter addressed to Finance Committee Chairman Clifford Graham prior to the hearing, and which was read aloud during testimony on Tuesday, Manuel Gutierrez, owner of Centerline Car Rentals, relayed in detail the harm that the surcharge would do to the sector. He urged that the measure be abandoned altogether; calling it \u201cunjust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have polled every car rental company in the territory and all companies are united in opposition to the proposed bill,\u201d Mr. Gutierrez wrote. \u201cWe have also polled our staff who are the ones that must face the public and they are aghast and strongly opposed as well. We have polled our industry partners and they are also opposed to this new attack on the tourism industry. We expect that you will hear as much from both the St. Croix and St. Thomas Chambers of Commerce and the St. Croix and St. Thomas Hotel Association. The memory of having to explain the 85% increase in the daily car rental tax just a few years back is still fresh in all of our minds. The backlash was severe. The loss of customers, particularly long term customers, was startling. On St. Croix in particular we cannot sustain yet another shock to our fragile economy. Please do not support this unjust 100% tax increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Gutierrez said that customers were renting smaller vehicles and doing so for less days because of the current $3.75 surcharge. \u201cWhere is the cutoff point of diminished returns for our government coffers or our community as a whole? Taxation without proper consideration is dangerous and counterproductive,\u201d he complained.<\/p>\n

Those who testified in favor of the measure on behalf of G.E.R.S. included Mapp administration and A.A.R.P. representatives, among others. They spoke words that have been a familiar sound in senators’ ears: G.E.R.S. is in dire need of financial assistance; and something must be done immediately to salvage the pension system.<\/p>\n

But senators, while agreeing that G.E.R.S. needed to be saved, said taxing the car rental sector was not the right way to achieve that goal. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Jean Forde, wound up agreeing with senators and testifiers who came in opposition of the measure, and he promised to make changes. It was held in the committee by a motion from Senator Tregenza Roach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. CROIX — The Committee on Finance on Tuesday unanimously tabled a bill that sought to raise taxes on car rentals\u00a0by adding what the bill describes as a \u201ccommunity surcharge\u201d of $3.75, intended to be allocated to the Government Employees\u2019 Retirement System. \u201cEvery person who rents a drive-yourself car in the Virgin Islands, in addition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[191,2474,147],"tags":[5099,121],"yoast_head":"\nBill Looking To Raise Car Rental Tax Tabled In Finance Committee - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39553\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ernice Gilbert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39553\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39553\",\"name\":\"Bill Looking To Raise Car Rental Tax Tabled In Finance Committee - V.I. 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I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bill Looking To Raise Car Rental Tax Tabled In Finance Committee - V.I. 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