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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchives17 BUDGET BILLS OK'D BY SENATE, 17 MORE TO GO

17 BUDGET BILLS OK'D BY SENATE, 17 MORE TO GO

The 23rd Legislature, by design, got halfway through the final phase of approving the government's Fiscal Year 2000 budget Thursday, reserving the second half of the job for today's session.
Seventeen of the 34 budget bills, many of them appropriations measures transferring money from one fund to another, won approval after a tight, if not always to-the-point, 10 minutes maximum of comment from each Senator present on the bloc of proposals taken as a whole.
The lawmakers adopted the procedure at the start of the day, approving a motion by Sen. Allie-Allison Petrus to divide the budget bills into two blocs of 17 each and then allow debate only on the collective 17 up for consideration the first day before moving to individual votes on each bill.
Seven of the bills approved to be sent to Gov. Charles Turnbull for his signature provide for appropriating
– $450,000 from the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund to the Department of Housing Parks and Recreation;
– $400,000 from the Union Abitration Award and Government Employees Increment Fund to the Public Employees Relations Board;
– $12.8 million from the Transportation Trust Fund to the General Fund;
– $2.7 million from the Union Arbitration Award the Government Employees Increment Fund to the General Fund;
– $1.5 million from the Land Bank Fund to the General Fund;
– $300,000 from the Industrial Development Fund to the General Fund; and
– $1.4 million from the Business and Commercial Properties Revolving Fund for the Property and Procurement Department;
Two others provide for amending the V.I. Code to defer the transfer of $2 million from the Internal Revenue Matching Fund to the St. Croix Capital Improvement Fund, and of $1.25 million from the Caribbean Basin Initiative Fund and the Internal Revenue Matching Fund to the Youth Crisis Intervention Fund.
Others provide for appropriations from the Internal Revenue Matching Fund and from the Health Revolving Fund; amend the V.I. Code to provide general authority to sell delinquent property tax liens; and clarify the status of certain employees of the Government Development Bank.
All senators were present and voting except for Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, who is a plaintiff and witness in the Beal land-swap lawsuit trial currently under way in Territorial Court on St. Croix.
The 17 bills scheduled for votes today include some dealing with major fiscal matters — appropriations for the executive and legislative branches as well as the proposed FY 2000 Omnibus Act. As proposed, the final tally will add up to $445 million for the FY 2000 budget.

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