(For those of you who are unaware, beginning last year -- Arkansas boat owners were assessed $45 for the first marine toilet, and a lower fee for each additional head after that). Peggy Hall, a former Arkansawyer, was instrumental in helping write this act, that we affectionately called the "Toilet Tax". Unbelieveably, refund checks are being received from the Arkansas Department of Health this week. Act 1608 of 2001 effectively repealed the "Toilet Tax" aka ACA 27-101-401,et seq., in conformance with Federal Law which precludes individual states from operating a Marine Sanitation Program and collecting fees to offset costs of administering said programs, and has mandated refunds paid for permits collected after July 1, 2000. Chalk one up for the Fed's!!!
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Peggie?
Your post was somewhat confusing to me. Are you saying Peggie helped with the law which implemented the tax or rescided the tax? ALso in New York don't you have to buy a sticker of some sort if you have a head on board? What is the difference?
Your post was somewhat confusing to me. Are you saying Peggie helped with the law which implemented the tax or rescided the tax? ALso in New York don't you have to buy a sticker of some sort if you have a head on board? What is the difference?
More on Toilet Tax
Peggie helped write the piece of legislature that was enacted two years ago. The procedure was flawed from the start, and it was against Federal Law. Arkansawyers had to purchase a goofy "permit" and place a sticker on their starboard sides. No inspection of "Y" valves ever took place. Some Marina's took advantage of the monies available to purchase marina owned pump-out vessels which charged exorbitant prices to come to boats to pump them out. In essence, our taxes bought the marina's another profit center. The marina's submitted a renter's list to the AR State Dept. of Health and they proceeded to bill us anually. Meanwhile, our "free" pumpout facilities went to hell. They either would not work or there would be no fittings available to us who would attempt to pumpout. Coincidence???
Peggie helped write the piece of legislature that was enacted two years ago. The procedure was flawed from the start, and it was against Federal Law. Arkansawyers had to purchase a goofy "permit" and place a sticker on their starboard sides. No inspection of "Y" valves ever took place. Some Marina's took advantage of the monies available to purchase marina owned pump-out vessels which charged exorbitant prices to come to boats to pump them out. In essence, our taxes bought the marina's another profit center. The marina's submitted a renter's list to the AR State Dept. of Health and they proceeded to bill us anually. Meanwhile, our "free" pumpout facilities went to hell. They either would not work or there would be no fittings available to us who would attempt to pumpout. Coincidence???
My role...
I was a consultant to AR Health--who was in charge of the marine sanitation program--during the drafting of their marine sanitation legislation, and I did my best to get 'em to do it right.
The part of it requring holding tanks on non-navigable inland lakes was ok...it just reiterated federal law. But they didn't do enough homework before enacting it. The "toilet tax" was supposed to fund the entire program, but they WAY overestimated the number of boats with toilets (it actually falls somewhere between the 5,000+ they thought they had and the 800 or so they've been able to find), and then tried to make up the shortfall in revenue with a ridiculously high annual fee, AND--they excluded "portable toilets" from paying it (both of which I argued against, but no avail). Those two provisions created enough boat owner resistance to start a second Civil War! With nothing in the law to prevent 'em from doing it, a lot of the boats--including big houseboats!--that had toilets pulled 'em out and replaced 'em with portapotties to avoid paying the whopping $45/year--per toilet! (which meant $90/yr for boat with 2 heads)--cutting their revenues even further. Without adequate funding, they had no choice but to rescind the law. Bottom line was, about the ONLY things I was successful in accomplishing during the two years I worked with 'em to write the law was talk 'em out of including gray water (which they originally wanted to include), and keeping the language of holding tank requirement within the bounds of the federal laws pertaining to non-navigable inland lakes. I had NOTHING to do with the exhorbitant "toilet tax!"
I was a consultant to AR Health--who was in charge of the marine sanitation program--during the drafting of their marine sanitation legislation, and I did my best to get 'em to do it right.
The part of it requring holding tanks on non-navigable inland lakes was ok...it just reiterated federal law. But they didn't do enough homework before enacting it. The "toilet tax" was supposed to fund the entire program, but they WAY overestimated the number of boats with toilets (it actually falls somewhere between the 5,000+ they thought they had and the 800 or so they've been able to find), and then tried to make up the shortfall in revenue with a ridiculously high annual fee, AND--they excluded "portable toilets" from paying it (both of which I argued against, but no avail). Those two provisions created enough boat owner resistance to start a second Civil War! With nothing in the law to prevent 'em from doing it, a lot of the boats--including big houseboats!--that had toilets pulled 'em out and replaced 'em with portapotties to avoid paying the whopping $45/year--per toilet! (which meant $90/yr for boat with 2 heads)--cutting their revenues even further. Without adequate funding, they had no choice but to rescind the law. Bottom line was, about the ONLY things I was successful in accomplishing during the two years I worked with 'em to write the law was talk 'em out of including gray water (which they originally wanted to include), and keeping the language of holding tank requirement within the bounds of the federal laws pertaining to non-navigable inland lakes. I had NOTHING to do with the exhorbitant "toilet tax!"Wait a minute, Ted...you're way off base.
There wasn't anything illegal about what they tried to do, nor was anything in the law itself against Federal law. Quite a few states, including GA, require a "toilet registration fee," but it's reasonable--for instance, GA adds an $5 to each 4-yr boat registration fee, and "y-valve" inspections aren't mandatory ANYwhere. Random inspections are the norm. The monies that marinas used to purchase pumpouts didn't come from the AR "toilet tax"--they never collected enough to provide any. Those funds came from the federal grants provided by "Clean Vessel Act of 1992." It wasn't the state, but the marinas themselves, who violated the terms of those grants by charging higher fees than federal law allows marinas who use CVA grants to pay for pumpout facilities to charge. And the marinas lied about how many boats with toilets they had in order to get the grants. It came back to bite 'em in the @$$, because the grants only pay for the purchase and installation of pumpouts...they don't cover maintaining and operating 'em. And without enough boats to pump out to evencover the cost of keeping 'em up and running, much less make any money from pumpouts (which they aren't allowed to do anyway), the marinas just didn't fix 'em when they broke. And without enough revenue from the "toilet tax," the state couldn't help 'em either. As for missing pumpout fittings, you can lay THAT directly at the feet of boat owners who stole 'em so they'd be sure to have one if the marina didn't. It happens everywhere if the marinas don't keep 'em locked up. There was a lot wrong with the way AR did it, but there wasn't anything illegal about what the state did...the only illegalities were in the fees marinas tried to charge for pumpouts.
There wasn't anything illegal about what they tried to do, nor was anything in the law itself against Federal law. Quite a few states, including GA, require a "toilet registration fee," but it's reasonable--for instance, GA adds an $5 to each 4-yr boat registration fee, and "y-valve" inspections aren't mandatory ANYwhere. Random inspections are the norm. The monies that marinas used to purchase pumpouts didn't come from the AR "toilet tax"--they never collected enough to provide any. Those funds came from the federal grants provided by "Clean Vessel Act of 1992." It wasn't the state, but the marinas themselves, who violated the terms of those grants by charging higher fees than federal law allows marinas who use CVA grants to pay for pumpout facilities to charge. And the marinas lied about how many boats with toilets they had in order to get the grants. It came back to bite 'em in the @$$, because the grants only pay for the purchase and installation of pumpouts...they don't cover maintaining and operating 'em. And without enough boats to pump out to evencover the cost of keeping 'em up and running, much less make any money from pumpouts (which they aren't allowed to do anyway), the marinas just didn't fix 'em when they broke. And without enough revenue from the "toilet tax," the state couldn't help 'em either. As for missing pumpout fittings, you can lay THAT directly at the feet of boat owners who stole 'em so they'd be sure to have one if the marina didn't. It happens everywhere if the marinas don't keep 'em locked up. There was a lot wrong with the way AR did it, but there wasn't anything illegal about what the state did...the only illegalities were in the fees marinas tried to charge for pumpouts.
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