Lawmakers on the Senate Committee for Economic Development and Agriculture said the current proposal for reform of the Industrial Development Commission needs a second look, and a prominent local tax attorney testifying Thursday agreed.
In a week when other committee hearings ran day and night on a number of controversial topics, just four testifiers expressed their opinions Wednesday on St. Thomas at the IDC hearing. On St. John Thursday, that number shrank to one, but attorney Marjorie Roberts brought with her a wealth of experience in the IDC application process and an extensive background in tax law.
Bill No. 23-0243 call for creation and expansion of a Virgin Islands Economic Development Program in order to "propel the Virgin Islands economy forward in the new millennium." But Roberts said she found it incapable of meeting those ends.
Roberts said the 79-page proposal was hard to follow. She said she may have a better background than others to interpret the intent of the bill, and if she had problems understanding it, what about those not equally well-versed?
She also said the bill refers to old laws that have ceased to exist, specifically Internal Revenue Code Section 936, which was repealed in 1986, and the 1954 Internal Revenue Code, "which has not existed for 14 years," she said.
Roberts also criticized a provision in the bill that calls for taxation of management and consulting fees paid to experts not living in the territory. Another section calls for remuneration of IDC agents to come out of taxes paid by IDC beneficiaries, which Roberts called "a bad idea."
Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole said the bill presented at the public hearings was a "working document" with room for improvement.
Sen. George Goodwin asked, "So it is your opinion that there is too much government in this bill?"
"There is a lot of government in this bill," Roberts said. "I'm not against too much government as long as things move quickly."
Sen. Gregory Bennerson asked if the bill should be scrapped in favor of revising existing IDC statues, an idea Roberts said she favored.
She also expressed support for higher participation fees for members of the IDC. The current fee of $50 per commissioner is not enough, Roberts said, given the decisions they are being asked to make and the amount of review needed for each IDC applicant.
