Gov. Kenneth Mapp touted funding for unpaid vendors as he announced he approved the Fiscal Year 2019 Waste Management Authority budget.
The budget bill appropriates $25.4 and includes $4 million specifically earmarked for vendor payments.
During budget hearings, WMA officials told senators they did not have enough funding to fulfill their mission and owed $16 million to vendors and major contractors for trash hauling and sewage treatment. They said they could use an additional $40 million to meet all their needs. (See “WMA Budget Will Fall Short of Agency’s Obligations” in Related Links, below.) That sum would be a downpayment on costs to close the territory’s two landfills, which WMA is court mandated to do.
Government House released a statement Tuesday saying Mapp prioritized WMA’s budget “to facilitate paying waste haulers and to support the cleanup and beautification of the territory.”
“We have come a long way, but there is still far too much trash and debris,” Mapp said. “We now have quite a bit of construction waste to take care as homes and businesses are repaired.”
Mapp said Tuesday the funds will allow WMA “to increase its staff and cover outstanding vendor payments.”
In his transmittal letter to Senate President Myron Jackson, Mapp said last year’s storms created “an immense amount of debris” that WMA continues to be responsible for.
“As you know, the VIWMA had the monumental task of handling approximately five times the amount of the average residential and commercial waste,” Mapp wrote. “This task coupled with the daily responsibilities of VIWMA to handle the territory’s solid waste put an incredible strain on VIWMA’s staff and finances. As such, it is imperative that I approve this bill today to allow the VIWMA to meet its responsibilities and obligations for the betterment of the territory’s residents and environment,” he wrote in the letter.
With the $4 million for vendors, WMA is seeing a $2.5 million increase over FY 2017. WMA is also getting $2.8 million from several other sources, including its own fees.
