A couple of key proposals have been languishing in the Senate, and Gov. John deJongh Jr. is calling senators into special session Thursday on St. Thomas to address them.
One of the bills authorizes the government to float $87 million in bonds to fund various critical capital projects. The proposal, submitted by deJongh in May, comes on the heels of another $400 million bonding request debated twice on the floor but never approved by the Legislature.
Those bonds were to be backed by gross receipts tax revenues that government officials have said are dwindling. While the $400 million bond proposal isn’t off the table yet, local matching funds — or rum revenues, which are expected to increase over the next five years once the new Captain Morgan Rum distillery gets up and running on St. Croix — will be used to back the new issue.
"Because of the overarching importance of this proposed legislation and the inaction on my prior submission outlining these critical needs, I am … calling the 28th Legislature into special session on July 9 at 10 a.m.," deJongh wrote Monday in a letter to Senate President Louis P. Hill. "I urge the Legislature to take action on that date."
That the government is currently experiencing a multi-million budget shortfall is no secret. In fact, members of the governor’s financial team have also said at various Senate hearings that the territory will also feel the pinch in fiscal year 2010, prompting the need for numerous cost-cutting measures, short-term financing options and the bond authorization, which deJongh said Monday would "provide a spark to our local economy."
About $12 million would be put toward local schools, with another $6 million going to solid-waste projects and facilities. More than $9 million would go toward emergency-management equipment and facilities. More than $20 million would cover a slew of road repairs across the territory.
"As I stated in my May 2009 submission, these projects will support the local economy by creating needed business activity, which will, in turn, generate governmental revenue in the form of gross receipts, income and other taxes," deJongh wrote in his letter to Hill. "Despite the challenges still existing in the financial markets, we are confident there will be a slow thawing of the bond markets, which will enable us our needed capital once this legislation is signed into law."
The second bill to be considered during Thursday’s special session removes timeshares from usury limitations under the V.I. Code.
"The application of the current usury statute to the sales of timeshare intervals places the V.I. timeshare industry at a distinct disadvantage relative to those jurisdictions with which we compete, such as Florida, Hawaii, the Bahamas and California, which do not have such restrictions," deJongh explained Monday. "A failure to promptly amend the statute to provide the requested exemption will cause a number of ongoing and contemplated timeshare projects in the territory to be impeded or halted altogether."
It’s time for senators to stop playing politics and either vote on the bills or explain why they won’t, the governor said in a statement Monday.
"I am prepared to discuss, to debate, to trade and to compromise," deJongh said. "I have always believed that we can best solve the problems we face when we face them together, but that requires the Legislature to take part, to engage openly and fully, and to take action on matters of great importance to the territory.”
