From her perspective as chair of the Legislature's Finance Committee, Sen. Lorraine Berry painted a bleak picture of the government's finances as she addressed the weekly luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of St. Thomas on Wednesday.
Relating the recent history of the territory's growing fiscal problems, including last week's Vitran layoffs, the debt owed the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, and the government's $300 million bond issue floated to pay vendors, make income tax refunds and meet the bloated public payroll, she said, "The government is broke, flat broke."
Some of her Senate colleagues realize that the decline of the territory's fiscal health cannot be permitted to continue, she said, and there is agreement that new strategies must be implemented. "The government has lost its financial mooring," she said. But finally,"It is understood that we cannot continue on the path of spending recklessly, bashing the private sector and engaging in corrupt practices," she said.
Berry endorsed the plan put forth on Monday by Innovative Communication Corp. president Jeffrey Prosser in his address to the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce. Prosser called for the creation of a business sector-dominated task force to implement his proposal to hire economic consultants with a track record of helping states and other jurisdictions attract sustainable new business investment. He pledged to put $500,000 into the project if others in the community would commit $250,000 in matching money.
"Mr. Prosser's plan must be taken seriously," Berry told the Rotarians, noting that many members of the civic organization are local business owners and executives. "I encourage each of you to consider it."
Berry noted that she also has embraced many of the proposals contained in the five-year strategic plan recently submitted to the 23rd Legislature by the governor's economic recovery task force. However, even though it was the Turnbull administration that commissioned the report, she said, she has her doubts as to whether the government leadership will have the political courage to act on its recommendations.
She also criticized the reluctance of Government House to share financial information, particularly as it relates to payroll costs, with the legislative branch and the public. The Senate will be able to obtain such information only from the Fiscal Year 2001 budget that Government House is due to submit soon to the legislature, she said.
