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Aug. 13, 2008 – As the very important matter of ratification of the Diageo agreement/proposal came before the Virgin Islands Legislature, it was our responsibility and duty to do an independent evaluation, analysis and careful review of the agreement executed by our chief executive.
To that end, I wanted to hear from Cruzan Rum, its owners and experts in the industry and the related areas of impact. Public input from the residents of St. Croix was most important, especially based on the time limitations suggested by Diageo. There were many questions that arose based on Diageo's presentation and the presentation made by the Governor's team. Some of them were:
The agreement needed to be modified to include government approval and input in the renewal of the 30 year agreement; this modification would allow for reasonable modifications to address expected changes in the economic, social, political and environmental concerns of the territory arising during the first 30 years of the agreement.
During Diageo's testimony on July 8th & 9th 2008 they stated that the company would no longer pursue a "phased" development of the project. Diageo indicated there would be no phase one of the project. Based on this testimony, the agreement needed to be modified to clearly reflect this change and to protect the people from possible misuse of Phase One component in all parts of the agreement.
Assistance with Permits is one sided and mandates that the government "shall do all things and take such actions reasonably necessary, to the fullest extent permitted by law … to get all permits needed by Diageo." This sub-section is contrary to public policy, it is unfair to all other projects that come before government agencies for permits and reeks with conflicts of interest, favoritism and bias.
In addition, the agreement is actually contingent on the whim of Congress. Simply put, the Rum excise tax is a federal tax that is returned to the Virgin Islands as a gift from Congress. This federal tax can be modified, augmented or repealed at anytime. Our history with the federal government is inconsistent and at times antagonistic. We are currently the subject consent agreements, receiverships, and federal court orders. We seem to be totally insignificant when Congress wants to change laws to suit itself and the states of the union.
While I agreed with the deal, the underlying agreement was filled with loopholes and inconsistencies that could have been corrected before the July 31, 2008 deadline. As the Democratic Minority Leader, I thought we should have met as a government with Diageo to fine tune the agreement and accompanying legislation. Instead, "Together We Can if you agree with me" seems to have carried the day. Consider though, if all elected representatives were interested in making the agreement better for all involved. Why the rush? Nonetheless, the deal and accompanying ill-advised agreement and legislation passed with a 10 to 5 vote. Majority rules but time will tell how the underlying agreement affects the territory.
