Dear Source,
After recovering from the shock of Sen. Celestino White's piece of June 20 stating that a private business providing a service to its clients should be of greater concern to the other senators (and apparently the public) than the Legislators spending a $1 million of public funds to give themselves new cars (see "New vessel of more concern than new vehicles"), I must respond.
The government of the Virgin Islands is failing to provide an adequate public education, failing to provide a functioning sewer system (despite the availability of federal funding and a 10-year old court order), failing to provide adequate handling of municipal waste (which endangers the continued operation of the St. Croix airport and is in violation of the grant agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration, and further damages the environment of Benner Bay and lagoon on St. Thomas, which in turn threatens already depleted fishing), and failing to maintain roads in a reasonable condition.
While busy failing at these tasks, it has failed to comply with the terms of its agreements with the cruise lines, who provide the bulk of the tourist industry. Combined with its inability to control the crime rate that is now the highest in the United States, the Virgin Islands has now lost the cruise ship industry on St. Croix and is losing market share on St. Thomas. All we need to complete this picture of abject failure is to damage the hotel industry further.
And through all of this, the Legislature has decided that this is a good time to reward themselves with two new top-of-the-line SUV's per senator, with the public's money. This added perk is on top of being the third-highest-paid legislators in the United States despite representing one of the smallest jurisdictions. Just for comparison, an average California assemblyman represents 425,000 citizens, and a California senator represents 850,000 — while the Virgin Islands senator represents 8,000. Since the cost of the legislator's salary comes from the public, each Virgin Islander must pay 100 times as much to pay for his or her senator as a Californian. And that's before the pair of luxury SUV's.
But Sen. White is indignant that a hotel would acquire a means to provide a desired service to its clients, at its own expense. The Westin is not wasting public funds, but instead refusing to have the hotel's clients further delayed and aggravated by getting sent through three more transportation hurdles (taxi, ferry, taxi), after the numerous hurdles their paying customers have cleared just to get to the Virgin Islands.
In other words, one is a private effort to promote business and encourage repeat business in the Virgin Islands.
The other is just another legislative boondoggle, at the expense of the public.
Boyd L. Sprehn
St. Thomas
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