does anyone know more about this? we just got an email from marriott on it. we will be charged an additional $25 per day so (we are now retired) we can no longer enjoy 2 weeks on island(s).. what is the government losing by us (and many others!) not staying longer? i don't understand???

This was part of the new 'sin tax' bill proposed by the Governor and passed by the Legislature.
Along with that tax hike other raises on beers, soda,cigarettes and some property tax changes are included.
Whether the gains in taxes will outpace the revenues lost by negative consumer reaction, similar to yours, will make it worth while overall certainly remains to be seen. It raises the cost of living here and makes the USVI less competitive on quite a few different fronts. It was not a popular bill locally for many reasons but a majority of elected Legislators passed it. Anyway.

Okay, I don't want to get too political, but this is kind of a political issue anyway, so...

Legislators have a huge blind spot when it comes to taxes. They seem to just assume that everyone will gladly pay new taxes, and that no one will ever change their behavior as a result of a tax increase. I live in Pasco County Florida. The county commission recently discussed increasing the gas tax. Their calculation was, X number of gallons of gas get sold in Pasco county every year. If we increase the gas tax by Y cents, then we will get an additional (X * Y)/100 dollars in revenues every year.

Umm... No. Not even close. Because when you increase the tax, a whole lot of people will buy their gas elsewhere, where the tax is less. One of the people testifying on the issue even explained that to them, but it just kind of went right over their heads. They just didn't "get it."

Going to guess here that the USVI legislators probably don't "get it" either. They just assume that everyone will keep right on coming, and buying, and the tax dollars will just keep rollin' in.

This is one I have been watching. For a while there, the USVI has been friendlier to cruisers than the BVI - more accessible, cheaper and less crowded. Depending on how things are implemented, drinks may get a good bit more expensive.

The SVIs are still cheaper and less crowded still.

Cheers, RickG

USVI is broke. They did this in hopes of being able to sell in the bond market. Watch the real estate market, I've seen an uptick in listings already.

Was this tax in response to the Westin converting from hotel occupancy to all timeshares? I could see them trying to recapture lost tax revenue. I can also see why it isn't popular with visitors.

Cleobeach: No, this was because the territorial government was looking for ways to raise money and they certainly weren't going to inconvenience any of their constituents. All they want is to be able to get back into the junk bond market. They don't actually want to change any of the ways things are done.

Ah, sounds about right....for the VIs.

Timeshare increase was only part of the bill - good size tax increases on beer, liquor, soda and cigarettes certainly do affect the constituents and raises the cost of living here even more.

IRB meeting:

http://stthomassource.com/content/2017/04/26/irb-holding-workshop-on-new-fee-for-timeshare-owners/