Government House spokesperson Richard Motta Jr. announced Monday the release of $15 million in tax refunds to approximately 6,445 taxpayers who filed their returns on or before April 25, 2023.
Motta said that total included nearly 6,000 taxpayers who are slated to receive refunds for 2022 and called the refunds “evidence of the Bryan-Roach administration’s commitment to fundamentally changing how government works for the people of the Virgin Islands.”
“For many years, the timely payment of income tax refunds was a persistent challenge for the territory, with families often left waiting months — sometimes years — for money that belonged to them,” he said. “This administration has worked tirelessly to confront those challenges head on and bring meaningful change to this process.”
In total, Motta said the Bryan-Roach administration has distributed more than $67 million in income tax refunds in 2024.
“We know what these refunds mean to you — they help you pay your bills, support your children, cover unexpected expenses and assist you in planning for a better future,” he said. “Governor Bryan and Lieutenant Governor Tregenza Roach have always been clear: your government owes you these refunds, and it is our responsibility to ensure you receive them in a timely manner.”
Motta said Monday’s announcement reflected the administration’s determination to meet that obligation and called the payout the result of “deliberate planning, disciplined fiscal management and a refusal to accept the status quo.”
The administration has long promised to make Virgin Islanders whole by paying out tax refunds, retroactive wages and making vendor payments. During his 2024 State of the Territory address, Bryan said the government’s available cash had been strained by efforts to meet those obligations and called retroactive wages “40-year-old debts that we are paying with current operating revenues — all while continuing to build up the cash reserves in our Rainy Day Fund. We anticipate that this is a temporary cash crunch, and we remain on track to meet our projections for the collection of revenues in the current fiscal year.”
Bryan’s remarks came after he sent down a supplemental budget bill to the 35th Legislature in 2023 calling for $25 million in retroactive payments, which the Legislature approved. Shortly before that year’s State of the Territory address, lawmakers learned that approximately $2.5 million had been paid out and the rest had been used to make payroll. Months later, lawmakers repeatedly heard during this summer’s budget hearings that revenues fell short of projections, and the government’s Rainy Day Fund had been used to pay off debts incurred by the V.I. Water and Power Authority amid an eight-months-long state of emergency.
Asked about the government’s financial position and the possibility of retroactive payments on Monday, Motta noted that the administration has already paid out upward of $40 million.
“For the first time in six years, last year, because of all of the economic stressors and pressures that we’ve been facing, the administration actually ran a deficit. And so … with that $25 million appropriation we were able to pay out about 10 percent of that — $2.5 million — but the cash flow … was just a bit of a challenge for us, and of course, the government of the Virgin Islands has to maintain its priorities, and some of those priorities are making sure that we can meet payroll, critical vendor payments, be able to support critical agency functions like the hospitals, Waste Management” and fuel payments, he said.
Moments later, Motta said that the $25 million appropriation for retroactive wages in 2023 “does not equal $25 million sitting in a bank account.”
“When we talk about retroactive payments and we make it appear as though there was $25 million set aside into some account, and it was used for some other intended purpose, that is a misleading claim at best,” he said.
During Monday’s briefing, Motta also noted the unveiling of eight new electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup trucks by V.I. Energy Office Director Kyle Fleming to cabinet officials last Thursday. Quoting Bryan, Motta called the vehicles’ arrival “a significant step toward modernizing the government of the Virgin Islands’ fleet and promoting sustainability.”
“The governor also mentioned that driving these electric trucks shows our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint and leads by example for the community,” he said. The vehicles were purchased through a U.S. Interior Department grant.
Asked about the territory’s plans to install public charging stations for electric vehicles, Motta said the V.I. Energy Office is in the early stages of executing a “four-phase” plan to bring stations to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
