The Senate in special session Friday night passed a bill worked out in negotiations with the Turnbull administration this week that identifies more than $11 million to pay for salary increases for teachers. The vote was 9-5.
By the same vote total, legislators also passed a revised early retirement bill for government employees.
Amendments tacked onto the bill could raise the total available for government employees' salary increases to more than $30 million, though Turnbull could delete them through the line-item veto.
A full, often boisterous gallery witnessed the vote on the teachers' salary bill, which comes in the wake of a territory-wide teachers' strike that forced the Turnbull administration and senators to hold a series of meetings this week to put together a funding proposal. But those senators voting for the bill Friday expressed lukewarm support at best for what was seen as a stopgap measure that applies only to Fiscal Year 2001 and contains no recurring annual funding sources.
The bill appropriates to the General Fund $5 million from the Insurance Guaranty Fund, $4 million from the V.I. Port Authority, and $1 million each from the V.I. Water and Power Authority and the West Indian Co. Ltd.
Earlier in the day, Vernelle deLegarde, interim AFT president for St Thomas-St. John, sparred with Karen Andrews, the governor's chief labor negotiator, over the $8.6 million salary funding which the teachers had rejected earlier. Andrews said the current funding legislation was "not on top of the initial proposal."
In response to Sen. Lorraine Berry's inquiry as to whether she would support the measure, deLegarde said, "I am not here today to negotiate," a sentiment she voiced more than once. She said, "Striking is a luxury. We haven't been paid in three days now."
Berry noted the AFT's opposition to the budget's proposed 50/50 cost-sharing on health and retirement benefits and gross receipts tax increase. She said the Finance Committee, which she chairs, had been trying to come up with new ways to fund salary increases when the committee was interrupted by the meetings at Government House on the same subject.
Friday afternoon, St. Croix AFT president Tyrone Molyneaux criticized legislators and Senate President Vargrave Richards in particular for failing to act on a Sept. 18 letter from Molyneaux asking for a meeting with legislators. Richards later offered documents showing he had forwarded the letter along with a memo to nearly all senators, only two of whom responded.
As senators offered comments on the salary funding proposal—as well as numerous other pet peeves and initiatives—it became clear that many would hold their noses and vote for the "one-shot deal," as it was often described. That despite recommendations from legislative Post Auditor Campbell Malone, government financial advisers First Union Securities Inc. and the Insurance and Banking Board that the legislation was flawed and fiscally irresponsible.
Though not allowed to testify, Henry Feuerzeig, attorney for Lloyds Underwriters, also distributed a letter received early Wednesday morning from Lloyd's representative Andrew Duguid strongly opposing using the insurance fund for the teachers' salary negotiations.
The letter said in part, "Lloyd's Underwriters are the number one contributors to the Guaranty Fund and have contributed just under $7 million in the last four years." Duguid said the 5 percent premiums tax assessed on policies in the V.I. is the highest paid by the insurer in any U.S. jurisdiction.
The letter warned that Lloyd's could pull out of the V.I. if the measure should pass.
Richards said, "In life, they say we must take risks. Well, this bill is a risk. It's a gamble. But we have a social problem, an immediate people problem," and the bill addressed it, he said—until a hoped-for turnaround in the V.I. economy provides more in the way of recurring funding.
Berry warned that approving the shaky measure would open the floodgates, and that other unionized government workers would soon be striking for their own salary increases with no money in government coffers to pay them.
Supporting the measure were Sens. Donald "Ducks" Cole, Roosevelt David, Judy Gomez, George Goodwin, Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Norman Jn Baptiste, David Jones, Almando "Rocky" Liburd and Vargrave Richards.
Voting against the bill were Sens. Lorraine Berry, Gregory Bennerson, Adelbert "Bert" Bryan, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg and Anne Golden.
The amendments passed Friday:
– Call on Turnbull to negotiate with Hovensa for an advance of $2 million in property taxes for FY 2001 to be used to pay negotiated salary increases for government employees.
– Clarify language in the teachers' salary bill on the $4 million from V.I. Port Authority.
– Appropriate an additional $3 million from the IGF.
– Prohibit assessments of insurers if the IGF falls below $50 million.
– Appropriates $20 million from the Public Finance Authority for the Union Arbitration Award and Government Employees Increment Fund.
The Senate also reassigned to the Government Operations Committee a third bill that would remove the Tourism commissioner as chairman of the Port Authority and Industrial Development Commission boards, a proposal reportedly requested by Tourism chief Rafael "Rafie" Jackson.
