Rafael Jackson's final Senate test was a breeze Monday, as he won confirmation to be the territory's Tourism commissioner by the full body with just one dissenting vote.
Later in the day, an amendment to an existing law to reallocate the territory's multimillion-dollar share of national tobacco settlement funds solely to health programs ran into a political maelstrom and finally went down to defeat in an 8-5 vote.
The two items highlighted a full agenda which also saw five other nominations confirmed and a number of bills passed, not all of them on the day's agenda.
Judge, four other nominees approved
Separate votes were taken on the nominations of Jackson to head the Tourism Department and of Audrey Louise Thomas-Francis to a seat on the Territorial Court bench. The other four nominations were approved in one bloc, with none of the nominees present.
Jackson was confirmed by a vote of 10-1 with four senators absent. Sen. Lorraine Berry cast the dissenting vote. Voting for Jackson were Sens. Vargrave Richards, Roosevelt David, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, Violet Anne Golden, George Goodwin, Norman Jn Baptiste, David Jones, Almando "Rocky" Liburd, Gregory Bennerson and Adelbert Bryan.
Jackson has objected repeatedly to the idea of a private-public partnership to manage the territory's expenditure of hotel tax funds for tourism marketing. "I am totally against it," he said in a May 22 meeting of the Senate Agriculture, Economic Development and Consumer Protection Committee, which also heard testimony from representatives of the private sector. This stance may have influenced the votes of some lawmakers.
Donastorg, announcing he was "entirely in favor" of Jackson to head Tourism, warned him to beware of a "loose canon" he may have to deal with. "You all know who I mean," Donastorg said. "Frandelle Gerard."
Gerard is director of the Industrial Development Commission. Donastorg has publicly denounced her practices in dealing with V.I. Telephone Corp. tax benefits. He charged that "she thinks she is chairman of the IDC board, as well as director." By law, the Tourism commissioner chairs both the IDC and the Port Authority Board. Jackson has said he wants the IDC post removed from the Tourism portfolio, where it landed when the old Economic Development and Agriculture Department was recreated six years ago as the Tourism and Agriculture Departments.
Thomas-Francis, with a large section of family and well-wishers in attendance, was approved as a judge by a vote of 10-0, with five absent. Voting were Berry, Richards, David, Donastorg, Golden, Goodwin, Jones, Liburd, Bennerson and Bryan.
The nominations approved in a single vote were:
– Malcolm Plaskett and Mary Ann Pickard, to the Industrial Development Commission Board
– Wallace W. Phaire Sr., to the St. Croix Hospital Governing Board.
– Rupert N. Peele, to the Historic Preservation Commission, St. Croix.
– Hugo Dennis Jr., to the Public Employees Relations Board.
When the smoke settled. . .
Re-allocation of the territory's share of the national tobacco funds settlement was a lesson in political strategy as the lawmakers jumped from the offensive to the defensive so fast that it was anybody's guess where they would all end up.
The legislation before the body Monday was to amend a law passed in March 1998 by the 22nd Legislature dividing the funds equally between the Health Revolving Fund and the Union Arbitration Fund. Health interests lobbied to have the law amended to give all of the funds to health care, an idea union representatives vigorously opposed.
Sen. Allie-Allison Petrus, off island and excused from Monday's Senate meeting, proposed earlier this year to allocate 80 percent of the funds to health and 20 percent to the union fund, again to strong union opposition. The amendment was defeated in the Finance Committee.
Public hearings were held on the issue at the request of the local chapters of the American Association of Retired Persons, the American Lung Association and the League of Women voters. Then Bennerson, Berry, Golden and Goodwin proposed an amendment to give 100 percent of the funds to health programs; this cleared the Finance C ommittee in March and the Rules Committee in April. Monday, up for final approval on the Senate floor, it was defeated.
The senators not voting for the measure all expressed regret at not being able to do so. Richards cited a national survey of how the states had distributed the funds – citing 54 percent to health, 12 percent to child care, 9 percent to education, 8 percent to anti-smoking programs, 6 percent to senior citizen programs and 11 percent elsewhere. Richards said no other jurisdiction has allocated all of its tobacco funds to health.
Bryan called Petrus a "hypocrite" for failing to be present to defend his amendment and added, "This is what happens when needy becomes greedy." He cited members of the American Association of Retired Persons in the audience, chiding AARP representatives Hugo Dennis and Ed Phillips for encouraging members to want 100 percent of the funds.
Berry cautioned that the tobacco companies that entered into the settlement could go broke in the course of the 25 years the funds are to be distributed and said the territory needed to make arrangements to secure its share of the money now.
Jones said he had to keep his "promise to labor." He voted for the 50/50 split in the 22nd Legislature and said he had a "commitment" he had to honor. Donastorg, who also voted for the original bill, said he appreciated the health concerns but had a commitment to the union members of the community. Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen said she had voted "no" before and would stick to her decision.
David, noting his position as chair of the Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee, cited figures from Petrus saying the union employees would get about "$2.38 per pay period with the funds." David said he had great respect for Petrus, but not much faith in his figures. Even at $2.38, he added, "you have to start somewhere."
Goodwin, citing the costs to people of having to go off-island for medical treatment, said, "Cancer, AIDS, whatever, it's proven we don't have quality health care." Cole said casting his vote was "a tough decision."
Sen. Norman Jn Baptiste, a former teacher, pleaded for allocating 20 percent of the funds to school nursing programs and the balance to other health matters. He said he would vote for the measure only under those conditions – which weren't met.
The bill was defeated by a vote of 8-5 with two absent. Voting for the bill were Berry, Cole, Golden, Goodwin and Liburd. Voting against were Bennerson, Bryan, David, Donastorg, Hansen, Jn Baptiste, Jones and Richards. In addition to Petrus, Sen. Judy Gomez was absent for the vote.
Other agenda items approved
The other four bills on the agenda which were passed were to:
– Make the territory a signatory to the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.
– Increase the mandatory penalty for armed robbery to seven years from three.
– Establish a V.I. Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.
– Change the effective date of the 911 Emergency Services Fund tax from Jan. 1 to April 1 of this year. At the direction of the government, Vitelco collects the tax as a monthly $1 surcharge on phone bills – and began doing so in April.
