The new Senate minority extended a hand to the community, and to any member of the eight-member majority, Wednesday to "come aboard." Meeting at the Palms Court Harborview Hotel, the six minority senators declared they will "do very much with very little" and vowed to work through financial obstacles to accomplish their goals.
Minority senators have been allotted $100,000 each for staff and expenses, as opposed to the majority senators' $200,000 each. The two standing committees chaired by minority senators have a budget of $15,000 each.
Calling the lopsided distribution of Senate funding everything from a "defacing of Martin Luther King's dream" to a "wrong and heartless move," the minority senators said the territory's people are the ones who will suffer.
Minority Leader David Jones said that despite the lack of funds, they stand committed, "ready, willing and able to move these islands forward." But, all six senators noted, they need the community's help.
Sen. Douglas Canton, named to chair the Health and Hospitals Committee, said he intends for the panel to pursue a progressive agenda with oversight to assist the territory's two hospitals. He said he expects the committee to work with Congressional Delegate Donna Christian Christensen to raise the V.I. Medicaid cap and Social Security benefits, to bring the territory on a par with the 50 states.
He asked how the community can move forward if its children are not well. He cited needs including immunization services, dialysis, asthma care and cancer care.
Canton pointed out that the territory loses millions of dollars each year when people go off-island for medical care. He said Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd had left him an "empty skeleton" with which to fund the committee.
Youth and Human Services Committee chair Vargrave Richards said he was "thrilled — I can't tell you how excited I am — to be heading this committee." Noting his limited budget, Richards said, "If you come from a family where things were tough, you learn to survive … and I come from one of those families."
Richards asked for volunteers and professionals to help the committee. He cited figures indicating that deaths of V.I. children under age 14 are far higher than the national rate: 42 per 100,000 in the territory, compared with 26 nationally. And 41 percent of the territory's children live in poverty, compared with the national figure of 20 percent. (These figures are available from the Community Foundation of the V.I. in the Kids Count Data Book 2000.)
Sen. Emmett Hansen II, a member of the Youth and Human Services Committee, decried the "abominable funding" for the committees, which he said basically "condemns the children." He said the community has to get more involved with its children. He noted that he has coached two Little League teams where a total of "maybe eight" fathers have ever attended games.
Hansen, a Crucian, also lamented the exodus of people from St. Croix. "Look at the airlines, the moving companies, anywhere," he said, "and you will see people are leaving."
He blamed the economy and health care concerns for the departures. "We even have some cases of TB," he said.
Hansen noted a St. Croix merchant who had moved his business to the new Christiansted boardwalk, only to find sewage flowing out from underneath and driving away his customers. Hansen vowed to work on these problems.
Sen. Roosevelt David had some positive things to say about the territory's economy. He said the $75 million in federal Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle, or GARVEE, bonds will be sold by March. The proceeds will go to fund capital projects including the Enighed Pond cargo facility on St. John, the Red Hook Marine Terminal on St. Thomas and paving of the territory's roads.
Opening her statements by saying "small events reveal large truths," Sen. Lorraine Berry said that while one of the majority senators was decrying the controversial Wrongful Discharge Act, the same senator was taking part in firing people with one day's notice.
She and other senators said that hiring by the new majority is about three times that of the 23rd Legislature's staffing level. "Look in the halls," one senator said. "You have to step over them."
Berry said she and several other minority members have met with Christensen about Medicaid, retaining of the excise taxes paid on V.I. rum on the mainland, federal funding for the East End Clinic on St. Thomas and federal tax cuts anticipated in the George W. Bush administration.
She expressed her pleasure at the new minority caucus. "This is only the second time in my 19 years in the Senate that this has ever happened," she said, citing ideological differences separating the senators in the past.
Jones wound up what he called the first in a series of minority "meet the press" sessions with a plea to Liburd: "We don't need a handkerchief; we need a hand." Jones encouraged the community to write to Liburd and other senators about the majority's actions, calling them "diametrically opposed to statements of cooperation" Liburd has made.
Several senators suggested there might already be divisiveness in the majority's ranks. "Come home," Jones said. "Our arms are open." The minority leader also said he had written to Liburd requesting a meeting between the majority and minority groups to discuss differences but had not yet received an answer.
Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg didn't attend the minority meeting. Jones said Donastorg had been asked to join the minority but had yet to respond.
