Dear Source:
Appalling! Every day the Source readers, including myself, write in about issues that are so basic that one has to step back and say: "You're kidding?" Taxation and more taxation, user fees, lack of services, no power, phone company has no service and is in bankruptcy, no trash pick-up services, environmental issues, coral reefs dieing, disrespectful and arrogant legislature, no plans to clean our islands up, corruption, corruption and more corruption! It's outrageous and we continue to complain and little gets done.
These complaints are never heard anywhere else in the developed world. The basics that people in almost every developed country take for granted are huge issues in the Virgin Islands. We have a high operating cost and poor services in almost every facet of government and the answer is always…we don't have enough money to fund the services we want! How could this be? The government creates a budget to do these things, yet they never get done because we don't have enough money?? Where the hell is the money going? It's not only aggravating, it borders on a completely corrupt and clueless government. I for one have had enough, and I think most people feel the same. What does it take-a revolution to make change happen? Where is our money? Our per-person spending is as high or higher than anywhere else in the United States yet we still perform like we are a third-world country! Open trash containers? What? Only un-developed countries still have open trash containers! What is this-Haiti? We need to fix that and so many other things that it's almost too hard to begin! The first step is to look at the money trail…
The operating budget for the State of Hawaii for fiscal year 2008 will be $10.2 billion. For 2009 it will be $10.5 billion. There are 1.4 million people that live there. That breaks down to $7300 per person. The Virgin Islands, with a population of 129,000 (estimated) has a budget for 2007-2008 of over $912M or a per-person average of $7100. And the government wants even more!! For the extra $200, Hawaiians live a lot better than we do, has a legislature that responds to its people and controls a much larger area. This, "we have three islands and it requires more than if it we were unified" is bunk! The problem is waste. NOT waste management but government waste!
Wake up people, we are being robbed blind and the same people who are robbing you are asking you to hire them again. When will it ever change?
Paul Devine
St. John
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