The territory’s political players are publicly supporting the new Senate majority’s efforts to have a portion of federal excise taxes on petroleum products produced at the HOVENSA refinery returned to local government coffers.
In its first session on Monday, the 24th Legislature passed a resolution requesting the support of Gov. Charles Turnbull and Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen in the effort. Even though the Democratic Turnbull administration was unsuccessful in lobbying the Clinton White House on the issue over the last year, James O’Bryan, an assistant to the governor, said Turnbull will support the Senate majority’s efforts.
O’Bryan said Turnbull and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt discussed the excise tax issue in the early part of 2000 as part of the territory’s economic "wish list." The issue was then taken up in "one or two meetings" by the territory’s lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and Interior’s Interagency Group on Insular Areas but never resurfaced, O’Bryan said.
"It was one of the issues that was brought to the table with the working group," he said. "It didn’t get anywhere."
Nonetheless, O’Bryan said Turnbull will support the efforts of the 24th Legislature, which include hiring its own lobbyist in the nation's capital.
"It’s a matter of reopening the issue. It’s a new Congress, a new Senate and a new administration," O’Bryan said. "The (V.I.) Senate has taken it as an initiative they want to launch and (Turnbull) will do anything he can do to support it."
Returning even a portion of the excise tax to the territory is a hard prospect for legislators in a financially strapped government to ignore. Based on the more than $680 million in total sales taxes collected on Virgin Islands gas in 1998, a 10 percent return to the V.I. translates into $68 million. A 20 percent return would bring in $136 million.
Delegate Christensen said she will support the Senate’s efforts, but warned its members not to get residents’ hopes up. As early as 1997, Christensen noted that the idea wasn’t received warmly by a Democrat-controlled White House.
With a Republican now at the helm, the chances of any money coming back may be even worse. Christensen's position has remained the same over the years: Without support in Congress and the White House, chasing after the gas tax would be futile. That means taking the fight to court, a strategy that failed in the late 1970s.
The main proponent of the return of some excise taxes is Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole. Clarence Williams, Cole’s chief of staff, said that Verne Hodge, former presiding judge of Territorial Court, will likely be involved in the effort. Hodge was a key player in the territory’s initial efforts to get money back from the federal government.
"He’ll be on board if he wants," Williams said. "He will play some role, even if it’s as an advisor."
Williams said a delegation from the territory will be formed to "take the fight to the halls of Congress." That group would probably consist of senators and members of the private sector and proceed "with or without" the delegate and governor.
Meanwhile, Holland Redfield, a former Republican V.I. senator and chairman of the local Bush campaign, told St. Thomas Rotarians on Tuesday that he would support the Legislature’s plans.
"I think it’s important to get this issue behind us one way or another," Redfield said. "I intend to do whatever I can to assist in this effort."
He added that it would show the Bush administration that local leaders are taking steps to solve the territory’s economic problems. But like Christensen, he warned politicians not to make the return of even a portion of taxes sound like a sure thing.
