The Senate Rules Committee approved one bill and one nomination Thursday. The bill took about 20 minutes; the nomination of Louis M. Willis as Director of the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue took almost five hours.
Approved was a bill that amends the V.I. Code to allow enforcement officers of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources to issue citations to persons who violate the territory's fishing, hunting and wildlife laws. The bill was sponsored by Sens. Donald "Ducks" Cole, Almando "Rocky" Liburd and Carlton Dowe.
The bill stipulates that the citations will be in the form of a traffic ticket, to be known as a "conservation ticket." Tickets can be paid to a clerk appointed by the Territorial Court. Persons not living in the territory may pay by mail. The bill also provides for enforcement of boat registration.
Revenues generated from the payment of the tickets are to be deposited into the Fish and Game Fund to be used solely for enforcing the fish, game, boating safety and conservation laws of the territory.
The bill passed 5-2. Sen. Adelbert Bryan was absent for the vote, and Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen was excused from the session, though both appeared later. Voting for the measure were Committee chair Dowe and Sens. Celestino A. White Sr., Cole, Liburd and Norma Pickard-Samuel. Non-committee members Sens. Emmett Hansen II, Lorraine Berry and Roosevelt David also attended the session. The bill will now be forwarded to the full body for consideration.
Willis sat through several hours of grilling before finally being approved, though most of the senators expressed confidence in his ability to run the agency, which collects about 93 percent of the Virgin Islands locally-generated government revenues.
Willis has been serving as acting IRB director since last July after Claudette Farrington was removed from the director's post by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull. He has been employed at IRB for 17 years, first as assistant chief of collections, and moving to chief of collections in 1995.
The senators asked Willis about a number of issues including the mirror tax system, entertainment taxes, deadlines for issuing tax return payments and collection of excise taxes.
Willis admitted the agency needs a better tracking system and more personnel to collect excise taxes from all ports of entry to the territory, and to monitor all items coming into the islands.
He also objected to tax amnesties of the past three years, saying the bureau could have collected that money.
Willis said any attempt to repeal the requirement for tax clearance letters for businesses would "drastically reduce monies." He said the letter is the "only local collection tool where the IRB is able to collect taxes without looking for the taxpayers."
Willis said repeatedly the IRB's work was now "time-sensitive," as the April 15 tax filing deadline is looming.
"In the capacity of acting director," Willis said, "I have developed a modernization and reorganization plan for the agency. I envision an IRB that provides top quality customer services and . . . retains a highly trained work force."
Fourteen members of that work force were sitting in the Senate gallery throughout the long session in support of Willis' nomination. Willis had some good news for taxpayers expecting refunds, saying he expected all year 2000 refunds to be out by the end of June.
If all the other senators were basically supportive of Willis' nomination, Bryan was not. "I have serious issues," Bryan said, "I would need three hours to ask all the questions that need to be asked." He proposed a motion to hold over the hearing to hear more testimony, but no one seconded it. Willis' nomination was approved 5-1 with one absent. Approving the nomination were Sens. Dowe, Cole, Samuel, White and Alicia Hansen. Liburd was absent for the vote.
The nomination will now go to the full senate for approval.
