Dear Source,
As a native Virgin Islander residing in the United States, where most legislatures are part time, I strongly support Sens. Vargrave Richards and Gregory Bennerson to make the V.I. Legislature part time.
It is about time that the V.I. took steps to reduce the amount of government spending in "low-productivity" areas, such as the Legislature and redirect funds to what should be high-priority areas such as education, particularly teachers' salaries. I am also of the opinion that the current appointed St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John administrators should be elected (only one for each island) to serve as "mayors" or "county executives" to take care of the details of the administration and daily operations of the government.
The part-time Legislature should be restricted to dealing with territory-wide legislation and policy and stay away from micro-managing, as it now does.
The opposition by most of the current V.I. legislators to the Richards-Bennerson proposal is nothing more than self-preservation.
Marvin A. Titus
Lanham, Md.
