St. Thomas is experiencing a major increase in unlicensed taxis picking up passengers in the territory, hurting the image and wallets of the territory’s taxi service and the V.I. Taxicab Commission is cracking down, its Executive Director Judith Wheatley told the Legislature Tuesday.
"Our agency has placed liens for the outstanding tickets issued to gypsy taxi operators at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles," Wheatley said. "These individuals are blatant about what they do and compete fiercely with the automobile for hire industry. These actions will not be tolerated."
Wheatley was before the Senate Finance Committee to discuss its annual budget. Although subject to the Legislative budget process, the semi-autonomous VITCC’s funding comes entirely from its own internal revenue sources, including license fees, bank liens, fees for an array of services and from the sale of taxi medallions. Gov. John deJongh Jr.’s 2012 budget recommendation for VITCC is $644,000 – a three-percent increase from 2011. Wages and salaries account for $384,000 – a 4.6-percent decline from last year. Fringe benefits, including retirement, health and government contributions for Medicare and Social Security consume $166,000, an 8.2-percent increase from last year. The catch-all category "other services and charges" is budgeted at $73,000 this year – a $20,000 increase from last year.
No votes were taken at the budget oversight hearing.
