Stimulus checks

Posted by: @exit-zero

Since real people who live real lives in the US Virgin Islands cannot vote for the president should this continuing political discussion just be moved to a relevant forum???

Actually this forum is for real people who are interested in moving to the Virgin Islands - and most of those people vote on the mainland. The residents of the VI are constantly ping ponged about by federal policies - such as the CARE Act - for which they may or may not benefit. These policies may directly affect someone's decisions on whether or not to move to the VI. 

 This discussion was about the CARE Act and stimulus checks. Diverted a bit by those who piped up to criticize it and the people in the VI who might benefit from its extended unemployment benefits.

I have never met in person anyone who would praise and endorse DJT. Yet this embarrassing orange man dominated our minds and lives for the last four years. He will most likely get reelected. Choosing between two evils (dems v reps) makes little difference from the perspective of middle class or even upper middle class. No matter what this century was marked by severe loss of civil liberties, explosion in police brutality, racial tensions, fall out of family values, immigration policy and exploding financial inequality. 

seems that we lost (or more like destroyed) an identity as a country and desperately are trying to reinvent the new one but without much success. 

At least one positive of DJT and to some extent Obama years is the run up of the market. If part of american dream is financial independence this two have done a lot to make small investor succeed. These who recognized the trend and had the discipline to jump on it have done very well for themselves. We have mass produced millionaires over the last 4 years.  

 

Anyway, the Democrats will fix it soon come as they have for the past century. 

After all, they have done such a great job in the VI. 🙂

@jaldeborgh well said

Good point CruzanIron.

Sorry to have caused these comments.Just wanted to know who received their checks.I am still waiting!

I received a letter stating I’d get mine by May 28th. Still nothing in my PO Box. I’ve called up 3 times about it already, they keep telling me their looking into it, and in the meantime, keep checking my mail box. I fear my check ended up in someone else’s P.O. Box. I fear it’ll take months to straighten things out if someone else has forged & cashed my check.

If I was desperately relying on this, i’d be screwed.

And not to go off track again, but this is another great example of why you don’t want Socialism.

Everything the government gets its hands on, turns into a clusterf#~k!

Sorry to have caused these comments...just wanted to know if anyone received theirs.still no check!

The feds delegated administration of stimulus checks to VI gov. Guest how that is going to play out. 

everyone should have got WAPA credit. I have two WAPA accounts. Never got a penny. Is there an income phase out on WAPA credit? 

Bought a car in April and still waiting for BMV to process title. They don’t answer phones so I walked to the office. There is line outside of 50 people cooking in the direct sun while they let in 2 customers per hour. I guess black lives don’t matter much to VI gov. 

@lily1025i received mine yesterday 

Posted by: @STTsailor

The feds delegated administration of stimulus checks to VI gov. Guest how that is going to play out. 

everyone should have got WAPA credit. I have two WAPA accounts. Never got a penny. Is there an income phase out on WAPA credit? 

Bought a car in April and still waiting for BMV to process title. They don’t answer phones so I walked to the office. There is line outside of 50 people cooking in the direct sun while they let in 2 customers per hour. I guess black lives don’t matter much to VI gov. 

Got my WAPA credit and since my last bill was low the credit carries into the next bill.  So no WAPA bill to pay this month.  Yippee.  And WAPA electric rate is going down 1.5 Cents in July.

BMV is only processing documentation via their drop box.  Fill out your paperwork and drop it off then wait for them to call you to schedule an appointment to pickup your docs.  I hope that line is not all people with scheduled appointments.  I'm waiting for someone to get my new registration and title this week for me.

Posted by: @Scubadoo

Posted by: @STTsailor

The feds delegated administration of stimulus checks to VI gov. Guest how that is going to play out. 

everyone should have got WAPA credit. I have two WAPA accounts. Never got a penny. Is there an income phase out on WAPA credit? 

Bought a car in April and still waiting for BMV to process title. They don’t answer phones so I walked to the office. There is line outside of 50 people cooking in the direct sun while they let in 2 customers per hour. I guess black lives don’t matter much to VI gov. 

Got my WAPA credit and since my last bill was low the credit carries into the next bill.  So no WAPA bill to pay this month.  Yippee.  And WAPA electric rate is going down 1.5 Cents in July.

BMV is only processing documentation via their drop box.  Fill out your paperwork and drop it off then wait for them to call you to schedule an appointment to pickup your docs.  I hope that line is not all people with scheduled appointments.  I'm waiting for someone to get my new registration and title this week for me.

Yes. I dropped off all docs 4 weeks ago with all docs and contact information as per BMV instructions. The drop box which seems like a great idea but in VI so many things can go wrong. Drop box eliminates “agent” from the food chain. Agent is feeding clerks from his fees. So now we have a workforce with eliminated sideline income.

 I never had any form of feedback from BMV. Their both phone lines are not being answered so I made the trip down and could not get it. 50 people outside with prior appointments standing in the morning sun while a couple of officials processing 2 people per hour. I gave up after one hour. They are forcing customers into the arms of “agents” who charge premium for facilitation of DMV services. Every 8th person in VI is employed by the government. Why can’t they get their act together? This scene is worse than DMV in the 80’s in the mainland. 

For anyone moving down here you should experience this as you will have to endure DMV for your drivers license, registration and inspections. You will have to endure multiple other gov offices. If you work here it will affect your income and productivity. If you are retired if will eat into your playtime. You will get charged double the fees while being abused and humiliated. Your paperwork, tax return, payment will disappear, and you will be told it’s your fault unless you can produce a proof of hand delivery. If you produce that proof there is no consequence to the official. You are always guilty here unless you produce a proof and get a break from the system.  It is simply not acceptable. 

Posted by: @STTsailor

Posted by: @Scubadoo

For anyone moving down here you should experience this as you will have to endure DMV for your drivers license, registration and inspections. You will have to endure multiple other gov offices. If you work here it will affect your income and productivity. If you are retired if will eat into your playtime. You will get charged double the fees while being abused and humiliated. Your paperwork, tax return, payment will disappear, and you will be told it’s your fault unless you can produce a proof of hand delivery. If you produce that proof there is no consequence to the official. You are always guilty here unless you produce a proof and get a break from the system.  It is simply not acceptable. 

After living here for 16 years, I've grown used to the "system". I can't even remember the last time I actually went to the BMV in person or had one of my vehicles "inspected". I just call "my guy" and he takes care of it. As a business owner, its just one of the costs of doing business here. The "system" isn't changing so you just have to find a way to deal with it.

Been here long enough to see the 'system' change dramatically !

BMV used to inspect all our cars on STT for 1 month a year in the summer - in the Ft Christian Parking Lot - in the hot sun! It included driving at a solid wall underway to test your brakes - and then getting closer to that wall  to test your headlight direction. Things do change.

In April this year my car was due for inspection and registration - Inspection was suspended per lockdown rules -- I went online - filled out the forms - used my CC - and got my sticker and new registration in the mail in 3 days. I considered this a miracle and have no expectation that the 'system' that did that sleight of hand will be available in the future!.

So I got my stimulus check on May 29. It was dated May 26.

Yesterday, I got a letter from the IRB, dated May 20, that I would get my check by June 4.

The kicker? It was postmarked June 8!! 

You can't make this stuff up!

I dropped off my docs at the BMV in STX first thing May 4th when they started the drop box and have not heard a word, I have insurance so I'm not really worried if they don't get to it for a while.  It is what it is. 

I need my plates next week so I'm going to be pissed if they drag their feet.

I had to get one of our cars registered in April and used the online system and also received my sticker within 3 days.  I considered this some kind of miracle.  I had two other vehicles for our company that need registration.  That required set up of our online account by BMV.  That took a good amount of time.  But was able to register two cars online.  But the stickers didn't come after two weeks.  The May vehicle was pulled over on June 1 for expired registration.  The driver produced the email with the receipt of payment for the registration and the cops checked and it was not in the system.   Trip to the BMV on St. John, they said it wasn't in the system and we'd have to get with the online people to get it in the system.  So I had to email them and ask them to get it in the system and mail us the stickers.  Took just a few days to get them after that.  But I didn't find it that unusual that a lot of manual entry has to be done once you do the online input of everything.  So if anyone registers their car online and doesn't see their sticker within a week touch base via email with the BMV to check up on things.  

I had pretty much given up hope. Checked my PO Box today, and low and behold, my stimulus check was there. 

And my WAPA bill also had the $250 bonus in it.

It’s a banner day on STX!

Thank you IRB.

Thank you DJT.

On the positive note i got my WAPA $250 credits. Also BMV located my paperwork some 7 weeks later after some persistent nudging. Oh the mysterious ways o VI gov. ?

Got my registration and plates from BMV on Wed just when I needed them.

Received my $1200 stimulus check this week, got WAPA credits on both my meters, did my car registration online and got it and sticker in the mail in less than a week.

Somehow these minor victories within the USVI system gives me a glimmer of some progress here, not that things change quickly or do I believe any progress will sustain or repeat itself in the future, let's be realistic right? But today the glimmer remains.

I got a reply back from the BMV, although nothing specific, but a reply... 🙂

every day I see 20-30 people in front of BMV in St Thomas. I spent 3 hours with that crowd the other day, watched multiple agents, fixers and related scum taking financial advantage of the broken system. I witnessed fixers greasing hands of the employees. Fixer can easily occupy the window for 1.5 hours. There are multiple translations all settled individually. It’s all cash business so it goes untaxed. It is all in the open and must be widely condoned by the government. Not a huge amounts but probably $5-10thousand per clerk annually of supplemental income. The only problem I have with all this is the fact that annual registration renewal and inspection is just another form of taxation. Another 75$ or more that the government takes from us for no other service then evidence that we paid. There is no inspection now at all. Look how many commercial vehicles operate without brake lights.

So we are forced to buy that gov service and in a process waste multiple hours and possible virus exposure to dutifully deliver tax. I think this is an ultimate arrogance of this pitiful joke of a government. Just take the money in a gracious and effortless way! Don’t make us stand in line for hours in every stinken office. And find a reliable way to keep records that you collected. 

There is a hope with online BMV system. This year I could not try it. Will definitely go this route next year. The online system seems to work for corporate annual reports. Initial set up was very cumbersome but annual renewal is easy. I  cross my fingers it lasts and no IT meltdown, hurricane or leaky roof will erase all electronic records of payment. It least we get an email that the gov was satisfied until next fiscal year.