Despite the absence of Finance Commissioner Bernice Turnbull, the Senate Finance Committee proceeded full speed ahead Monday. "It's do or die," said Lorraine Berry, committee chairwoman. "Today is the last meeting."
And for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, it was indeed "die," as four of DPNR's appropriation requests died in committee, one was tabled indefinitely and one was approved.
Dean Plaskett, DPNR commissioner, said he had been told by the Office of Management and Budget in July not to touch certain funds until they were cleaned up. As of last Thursday, they still haven't been "cleaned up," Plaskett said, adding that the "freeze" by OMB still exists.
Plasket said the department was getting by on federal funds.
He said that Attorney General Iver Stridiron told OMB earlier this year that the funds couldn't be touched without an amendment from the Legislature.
Though amendments were brought forth Monday, they failed to get the necessary vote. Plaskett offered figures for the appropriations he had been given, but some of the senators didn't accept Plaskett's figures as they weren't official amounts, since Turnbull was not present with the up-to-date fund figures.
The four bills killed by the committee were for salaries, operating expenses and other purposes. They concerned the Fish and Game Fund for $97,826; the Natural Resource Reclamation Fund, $1.5 million, and the Air Protection Fund, $1.5 million. The lawmakers also rejected a bill to increase the emergency expenditures cap from $275,000 to $1.5 million.
The senators were about equally divided on the measures which would have allowed Plaskett to dip into the funds, as none of the accurate fund balances were available. The Finance commissioner notified Berry that she could not appear Monday as scheduled because independent auditors were conducing an audit of the Virgin Island finances.
Sen. Violet Anne Golden said, "I could almost predict these funds don't exist" over Plaskett's statement that "we collected them." Golden said passing the appropriations would be "acting in futility, acting on misinformation."
Sens. Gregory Bennerson and George Goodwin agreed with Golden that they should not appropriate funds they were not certain existed. They asked Post Auditor Campbell Malone if he would verify the funds, and Malone said that to date he had not received any balances.
Voting against the Fish and Game, Reclamation Fund and Air Protection fund were Sens. Golden, Bennerson and Goodwin. Voting for the measures was Sens. Berry, David Jones and Roosevelt David.
The committee adjourned for lunch and a caucus at 1 p.m. but did not get under way again until after 6 p.m. Eleven bills were acted on, completing the 23rd Legislature's Finance Budget hearings.
Approved and sent to the Rules Committee were bills establishing an Economic Development Authority encompassing several entities including the Industrial Development Commission, enacting the V.I. Technology Enterprise Act of 2000, an appropriation for the Public Defender's office, a bill for the operation of the V.I. Government for Fiscal Year Oct. 2000 to Sept. 2001 including almost all the government agency appropriations with an amendment affecting the Insurance Guaranty Fund, and the Omnibus Act of 2001.
The meeting adjourned shortly before 10 p.m. A complete account of all the above measures will be in the Thursday Source.
The Rules Committee will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday, according to Rules Committee Chairwoman Golden.
