Budget hearings continued on St. Thomas Tuesday with testimony from the Public Finance Authority, West Indian Co. Ltd. (WICO) and Board of Nurse Licensure (BNL) officials.
Neither the Public Finance Authority nor WICO receive money from the General Fund for their annual budgets. The Board of Nurse Licensure, however, appeared before the Senate’s Appropriations and Budget Committee to ask for more money than what has been recommended for fiscal year 2010.
The board’s FY 2010 General Fund recommendation, listed in the miscellaneous section of the budget, is $163,000 — $28,691 less than its FY 2009 appropriation of $191,691. But more money is needed to cover existing payroll costs, replace an employee who is retiring and bring at least one more person on board, BLN’s Territorial Executive Director Diane Ruan-Viville told senators.
The board is requesting a General Fund budget of $286,705, along with another $188,025 from the Nurse Licensure Revolving Fund to cover operating expenses.
Along with outlining the FY 2010 budget request, Ruan-Viville also told senators that the 11-member board is currently operating with only five members — one short of a quorum.
Public Finance Authority
The authority’s FY 2010 budget is about $6.1 million — the same as it was in FY 2009, according to PFA head Julito Francis. The budget is mostly funded by contributions from the Internal Revenue Matching Fund — the repository for local rum revenues — and the authority’s Project/Administration Fund.
Along with covering operating expenses — including payroll, transportation and office supply costs — the budget also includes professional service contracts, accounting and auditing services and payments for financial advisors, among other things.
Francis had little to say Tuesday that hasn’t been said in other recent Senate meetings, but did note that the PFA’s board of directors will be meeting Wednesday to approve resolutions authorizing the issuance of up to $87 million in bonds and up to $250 million in short-term financing to help cover the territory’s projected FY 2009 and FY 2010 budget shortfalls.
Even with the financing in place, there is still expected to be a $12 million shortfall this year, he said.
Total project funding for FY 2009 is estimated at $568.4 million, including $250 million for the Diageo rum distillery on St. Croix, $8 million in financing for the territory’s new emergency 911 system and $3.1 million for the new library and records center in Estate Tutu. For FY 2010, the PFA’s goals include issuing pension obligation bonds or implementing other financing strategies to pay down on a portion of the Government Employees’ Retirement System’s unfunded liability, obtaining a letter of credit for the first set of pay downs on the government’s retroactive wage debt and implement a project management and evaluation along with Public Works to better manage local capital projects.
WICO
Cruise ship arrivals have declined and so have WICO’s revenues, according to the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer Edward Thomas Sr.
In FY 2007, overall passenger arrivals for St. Thomas-St. John were a little more than 1.9 million. But the "global economic crisis took a toll" in FY 2008, and overall passenger arrivals fell to about 1.7 million, with a loss of 98,398 passengers in the last quarter, he said Tuesday.
The numbers continued to decrease during this fiscal year, with arrivals through April down 15 percent at 790,795, as opposed to 928,863 during the same period in FY 2008. The scenario is the same in neighboring Caribbean islands such as St. Martin, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, Thomas said.
Berthing plans for the 2009-2010 season have just been completed, and it is expected that the new Oasis of the Seas mega-ship will visit St. Thomas every Tuesday starting Dec. 8. The harbor has to be dredged to accommodate the ship, and WICO — working alongside the V.I. Port Authority — is in the midst of the getting local and federal permits needed to start the project. There’s been much controversy over where the spoils will go, and senators pledged Tuesday that they would try to find a solution to the issue.
WICO will also be entering into a five-year berthing agreement with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, which will also bring in the Allure of the Seas, along with the Equinox and the Solstice from Celebrity Cruises. Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Dream will begin calling on the same day as the Oasis and will return bi-weekly throughout the year, along with the mega-ship Epic from Norwegian Cruise Lines.
"Clearly, if all goes well, the district of St. Thomas-St. John will experience an upsurge in cruise ship business in the 2009-2010 season," Thomas said.
Present during Tuesday’s meeting were Sens. Craig W. Barshinger, Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Wayne James, Usie R. Richards, Patrick Simeon Sprauve and Alvin L. Williams Jr.
