Gov. Charles W. Turnbull gave a strong indication Tuesday that he may not be willing to go with some of the recommendations of the task force he appointed at the start of the year to draft a plan to pull the territory out of its economic abyss.
The Economic Recovery Task Force, chaired by St. Thomas business leader John deJongh Jr., submitted its Five-Year Operating and Strategic Financial Plan to the governor on April 27. Senators got their first official look at it on May 8 at a Finance Committee meeting.
On Tuesday, Turnbull sent a letter to Senate president Vargrave Richards saying that the administration's proposed fiscal year 2001 budget for the territory, due by law to be delivered to the Senate on May 30, won't get there until June 30. In his letter the governor wrote:
"As you are aware, the administration's Five-Year Operating and Strategic Financial Plan contains several revenue and expenditure initiatives which are under review. The review process is to determine the measures to be incorporated into the FY 2001 executive budget to ensure it is fiscally viable. Therefore, it is necessary to delay the submission of the budget."
At a Senate Agriculture, Economic Development and Consumer Protection Committee meeting addressing the territory's tourism outlook Monday night, Berry, a member of that committee and chair of the Finance Committee, said Rudolph Krigger Sr., the governor's special assistant for fiscal policy and economic affairs, had stated publicly that the various department heads in the Turnbull administration were being told to adhere to the five-year plan in drafting their FY 2001 budgets.
The plan, an inch-thick document of double-sided printing, analyzes government operations department by department, summarizing findings and making recommendations for structural reform. It strongly emphasizes a need for new public-private partnerships and privatization of a number of functions that are now government responsibility.
