An amendment that would have appropriated almost $1 million to the Senate to battle mold and asbestos in the Capitol Building was line-item vetoed Tuesday by Gov. John deJongh Jr., with the suggestion that senators try and secure some bond financing for the project instead of moving around money from a fund that has already been obligated.
The money would have come from the Insurance Guaranty Fund, which the government had previously authorized to borrow from in order to begin paying down a multi-million dollar retroactive wage debt. With a budget crisis looming in fiscal year 2010, however, the fund was tapped to cover government operating expenses and approximately $20 million was pledged against a letter of credit needed to get the cash.
In a letter sent to Tuesday to Senate President Ronald E. Russell, deJongh said the Senate’s amendment could "jeopardize our ability to access these funds."
"I would suggest that if the Legislature would consider including the capital improvement it sought to fund … in a broader package of capital improvement projects, all of which are sorely needed, especially in the area of education, these projects can be supported by an appropriate bond financing," the governor wrote. "Such a financing may well allow us to move ahead with those projects previously approved by the Legislature, some of which are under way, as well as projects such as this one, that have been deemed to be of importance."
The amendment was among many tacked on during a legislative session in June to a bill that would bring a vendor’s plaza to St. John. In his letter to Russell, deJongh said he was also line-item vetoing amendments that:
• Allow money set aside for special tech scholarships under the V.I. Board of Education to also be used for students studying cardiovascular medicine. DeJongh said a drafting error in the amendment forced him to veto it, but added that he looks forward to approving a revised version in the future.
• Broadens the territory’s criminal assault statute by adding sections that specifically prohibits attack on teachers or school employees, along with caseworkers, investigators or any other employees within the Health or Human Services departments.
• Allows individuals who own homes in the states to still qualify for a first-time home buyer credit under the V.I. Housing Finance Authority if they move to the territory and don’t currently have any property here. In his letter to Russell, the governor said the definition in the amendment for "first-time home buyer" was too broad, allowing the money to possibly go toward individuals who have more income and assets than those in the community who really need the credit.
• Allows new farmers to apply for loans at the Government Development Bank, which now caters only to those who have been in the business for two or more years.
DeJongh signed the rest of the bill into law, along with other measures to:
• Restore the right of felons to vote after they have served out their sentence;
• Provide for the maintenance and use of electronic medical records, clarifying individual rights with respect to the disclosure of information contained in electronic medical records and clarifying the protection of privacy of electronic medical records.
• Authorize the executive branch to enter into a memorandum of understanding with federal agencies such as U.S. Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and the national Transportation Security Administration, for the sharing of information on firearms, or other weapons and substances entering the territory.
• Increase the government’s car rental fee from $2 to $3.75 and use part of the new money to finish Leonardo "Nardo" Trotman Drive on St. Thomas.
• Set forth new fines for traffic violations and increase fines for various existing traffic violations.
DeJongh also vetoed bills: increasing administrative fines for physicians seeking up-front payment rather than awaiting insurance payment, and establishing a veterans’ funeral expense and burial revolving fund and appropriating $50,000 from the Caribbean Basin Initiative Fund as startup money.
In his letter to Russell, deJongh explained that while he supported the veterans’ bill and its good intentions, he could not approve any more appropriations from the Caribbean Basin Initiative Fund, which has already been "fully pledged."
"An additional appropriation at this time would serve to reduce current year funding to the General Fund at a time when we are trying to close our budget gap," he said. "Moreover, I have consistently maintained that special funds should not be created absent a special revenue source for expenditures which are and should be paid out of the General Fund."
DeJongh said the veto would not, however, impact the burial of any local veterans since the funds made available in the miscellaneous section of the annual budget – slated to be $200,000 this year – are usually more than enough to cover the expenses.
