Sen. Roosevelt David took to the airwaves Saturday to denounce the Prosser-V.I. land-for-tax-break proposal as a sweetheart deal for Jeffrey Prosser and a financial debacle for the territory.
"It's worse than it looks," Sunday's Independent quotes David as saying. "I have read the proposal and what it does is give Prosser a blank check with the V.I. government's signature on it and no ceiling."
The proposal, which was announced April 1 in the Daily News, which Prosser owns, still has not been made public and Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has yet to comment on it.
Meetings last week to disclose the deal to Cabinet members and legislators were canceled. However, Government House officials say it is still being negotiated, and the Independent said Turnbull is expected to meet with union officials to discuss the deal this week.
David said he understands that the proposal is very much alive and that a majority of the 15 senators have indicated they would support it. He said he knows of only five senators, all from St. Thomas, who oppose it.
The agreement, according to what has been reported, involves Prosser building several capital projects and giving 1,000 acres of land at Carambola, which he is in the process of buying, to the government to make good on most of the $200 million the government owes in retroactive wages to unionized employees. In exchange Prosser would get tax exemptions for 30 years on the various companies under his Innovative Communications Corp. umbrella.
The Daily News estimated the value of those tax breaks at $6 million a year, or $180 million. Critics have said they would be much higher, since the agreement reportedly has no cap on the amount of taxes to be forgiven each year.
David on Saturday said Prosser would be "making an investment of $25 million and over a 30-year period he's having his companies taken off the tax rolls when we can hardly pay payroll," the Independent reported.
David says he hopes "the governor doesn't send it down at all" to the Legislature. "I hope his position is a no go."
