The Senate approved a roughly $605.5 million General Fund budget Tuesday to fund all the executive branch agencies, from V.I. Fire Services to the Department of Education for Fiscal Year 2013. Separate budget bills appropriated another $67.6 million from the General Fund to the University of the Virgin Islands, the V.I. Waste Management Authority, the territory’s judicial system, WTJX Public Television, the Office of the Supervisor of Elections and a handful of other purposes, bringing General Fund expenditures to approximately $673 million.
Budget bills also appropriated funds from an array of other sources, from federal reimbursements for services in the Indirect Cost Fund to fees for services contained in several agency revolving funds, bringing total government spending somewhat higher.
The numbers represent a considerable reduction from FY12’s budget, which had about $719 million in General Fund appropriations.
Senators made a last minute amendment to the main budget bill, adding approximately $1.6 million in new spending for an array of small projects, including $650,000 for a Customs clearing house in Red Hook and $250,000 to fund personnel and equipment for the Office of the Lieutenant Governor’s Division of Banking and Insurance to implement the recently approved tax break program for bank-like companies – on top of roughly $5 million in increased appropriations added during committee hearings.
Through the same amendment, senators also authorized the government to transfer up to $14 million from any and all government funds, except the St. John and the St. Croix capital improvement funds and the WAPA Generating and Infrastructure Fund, for government operating costs. Whether such a sum exists was not discussed.
The amendment also waived gross receipts tax on all gasoline and fuel products sold to WAPA. Proponents argued the measure would help WAPA lower its fuel costs, saving utility customers on their monthly bills.
Another provision of the amendment mandates WAPA develop a plan for fuel tax revenues being set aside for new generating equipment and submit it to the Legislature within 90 days.
The Senate also approved legislation:
– changing the name of the Department of Housing, Parks and Recreation to the Department of Sports, Parks and Recreation;
– authorizing WTJX Public Television to expand into other media besides television and changing the title of its director to chief executive officer;
– transferring oversight of the territory’s Medical Assistance Program from the Department of Health to the Department of Human Services;
– and approving a lease between the Department of Planning and Natural Resources and WAPA for a reverse osmosis facility on an 8 acre and a 1.3 acre parcel of coastal land in Estate Penitentiary in Company Quarter, St. Croix, at $112,319 per year.
