Jan. 28, 2003 – The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, picked up where the Committee of the Whole had left off a few minutes earlier on Tuesday morning. But as the second hearing proceeded, the state of the territory's finances remained as murky as it appeared in the abbreviated view revealed at the earlier meeting.
One thing made clear, however, was what Finance Commissioner Bernice Turnbull really said at a much-referenced meeting last Dec. 12. Media reports quoted her at the time as having told incoming legislators at an orientation on administrative procedures that the government was in a "fiscal crisis."
The commissioner evaded subsequent media requests for elaboration. But on Jan. 9, testifying in District Court in a case challenging the territory's manner of assessing real property for tax purposes, she said her "crisis" remark had been taken out of context by the press. She said she made the comment after looking over the government's bank accounts, but with the cash flow constantly changing, what she said only reflected her concerns at that time. "My intent to the senators was to tell them exactly how cash flow works," she said.
Asked on the witness stand what she had seen in the bank accounts that caused her concern, the Finance commissioner told the court she could not remember.
On Tuesday, Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. produced a copy of Commissioner Turnbull's prepared statement delivered at the orientation. In it, she said:
"We are facing a financial crisis presently. The government of the V.I. is operating on very little cash. As this is the beginning of Fiscal Year 2003, we have only collected a small amount of the estimated revenues. Our expenditures have not decreased. Our operations are at the same level. Therefore, our cash is at an all-time low."
Turnbull, Ira Mills, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Louis Willis, director of the Internal Revenue Bureau, provided testimony Tuesday which amply backed up what Turnbull had said then.
Willis said he goes over the finances "every day, almost every minute." He said February would be a "real tough" month, He said he hoped "carry-overs from the federal government between $15 million and $17 million would help" in February.
Freshman Sen. Luther Renee asked Turnbull: "Given what you have said, how would you characterize the government's cash-flow problem at this time? Is it temporary?"
Turnbull said it is temporary and that "none of us know what will happen, what we will be faced with." She, too, said February would be difficult. "No immediate payless paydays in the next two weeks; after that, I don't know," she said. She agreed with Renee that "we are on thin ice."
Mills had said before the Committee of the Whole that revenues from Caribbean Lottery Services, calculated as 10 percent of gross sales, totaled $588,954 in FY 2002 and has reached $236,448 so far in FY 2003
However, under questioning by senators about these amounts before the Finance Committee, Turnbull said she didn't have first-hand knowledge, because the money is paid into the V.I. Lottery, not the Finance Department. She said the lottery director, Austin Andrews, has unilateral power over the lottery funds — authority he was given by the Legislature until seats on the V.I. Lottery Commission are filled.
Both Mills and Turnbull sit on the Lottery Commission. But Turnbull said they have no authority because the commission cannot make a quorum. The governor has not sent the Legislature any nominations to fill vacant commission seats.
After a lunch break the committee was scheduled to hear from Roy Martin, tax assessor; Frank Schulterbrandt, Economic Development Authority chief executive officer; Kenneth Mapp, Public Finance Authority director of finance and administration; Darlan Brin, Port Authority executive director; Alberto Bruno Vega, Water and Power Authority executive director; Edward E. Thomas Sr., president of The West Indian Co.; Anthony D. Cruz, partner in KPMG, the government's auditor; and Tarance Draft, U.S. Customs Service area port director.
Attending the Finance Committee meeting were committee members Roosevelt David, Donastorg, Louis Hill, Norman Jn Baptiste, Shawn-Michael Malone, Luther Renee and Ronald Russell. Also present were non-members Lorraine Berry, Raymond Richards and White.
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