Dec. 8, 2008 — Pushing the territory through the current economic crisis is priority number one for members of the incoming Senate majority, who on Monday outlined plans to bring to the forefront the public's longstanding concerns over the cost of health care, energy, gas and housing.
The nine-member Democratic majority made its public debut during a press conference at the Holiday Inn on St. Thomas. The group has tapped Sen.-elect Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg for the position of Senate president, while Sen. Neville James will take over as majority leader. Newcomer Michael Thurland will fill out the vice president's seat, while Sen.-elect Sammuel Sanes will serve as the Legislature's secretary.
The outcome of this year's presidential election, coupled with the formation of Democratic majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, has heralded the same kind of formation on the local level, James said Monday. While the caucus organized quickly after last month's General Election, the process exposed the group to "certain beliefs" from senators who wanted to maintain the same kind of multi-party coalition that worked in the past two Legislatures, he said.
Absent from the bunch is Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone, a multi-term Democratic senator who has consistently been the top vote-getter in the St. Thomas-St. John district.
"It is really unfortunate what happened with Sen. Malone, but it would have been an embarrassment for us as Democrats to fail for the third time in a row to organize," he added, saying that there have only been two Democratic majorities in the Senate over the past few years.
First up on the majority's agenda is addressing two outstanding bills recently sent down by Gov. John deJongh Jr. to amend the fiscal year 2009 budget and issue up to $400 million in new gross-receipts-tax bonds that will finance a variety of territory-wide capital-improvement projects. If the governor does not call members of the 27th Legislature into special session soon to address the proposals, the incoming majority is prepared to "hit the ground running" and pick up that slack come January, Sen. Louis P. Hill said during Monday's press conference.
An overhaul of some of the Senate's standing committees also highlights the emphasis on economic issues: The Committee on Finance, for example, has been broken in two to form the Committee on Budget and Appropriations, headed by Hill, while James prepares to oversee the Committee on Financial Services, Infrastructure and Consumer Affairs.
Over the past 10 to 15 years, the Finance Committee has been "overburdened" by a variety of issues, and the split will allow senators to really focus on the government's revenue streams, how the money is being spent and shine the light on certain financial sectors — such as the banking and insurance industry — that have been put on the back burner, James said.
Disagreements with the Governor's Team
Whether the 28th Legislature will work in tandem with the deJongh administration to address these financial concerns may be a different story. A few members of the majority caucus aren't "chummy-chummy" with the governor, James said, and questions have been raised about the continuous fluctuations in revenue projections provided by members of the governor's financial team.
"There is always an argument presented that lends itself to some kind of picture of doom and gloom," he said. "There was talk of a budget deficit for FY 2007, but in that year we experienced record revenues — gross revenues of $944 million. So there are concerns as to why they (financial team members) continue to promote these ideas."
But there is also a difference between an "appropriation deficit" and an "allocation deficit," James noted. Efforts made by the government to scale back expenses over the years may leave many of the Senate's appropriations unfunded, but departments and agencies are still getting most of their money, he said. The two financial committees will collaborate over the next couple of years to get a firm picture of what kind of revenues the government actually has on hand and make sure agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue continue to provide periodic updates to the Legislature.
The administration can then "get a better feeling" about the Senate's understanding of the finances, and how it controls how the money gets doled out, James said.
"I mean, we have to work together," he added after the press conference, when asked how the majority plans to work with the governor in putting together the revised budget. "Otherwise nothing's going to get done."
Donastorg said during the press conference that he has not had the chance to look over the governor's revised budget bill, but is "looking forward" to reviewing the proposal and working with members of the majority caucus to determine what the government's priority spending areas are and what is available in terms of revenues.
But there are still a few other issues to resolve, majority members said during the press conference. The longstanding court battle between the government and a group of commercial property owners has turned into a "fiasco," leaving the territory short on money for the past three years, they said. But now that it's clear the government can continue to sustain itself without the funds, its time to direct that money — once it starts flowing again — toward specific expenses, instead of having it go into the "black hole" of the General Fund, James said.
Waivers and Subsidies
The majority will also put on its agenda a proposal to waive a year's worth of property taxes for local residents, Hill said. More emphasis will also be placed on how the government spends its federal funds and establishing an attrition program to address vacancies left by government employees, he said.
As residents continue to have their paychecks eaten up by high electricity bills, it might become necessary for the government to think about providing some kind of subsidy that would enable the V.I. Water and Power Authority to lower its costs, some majority members said.
"The national average is about 12 cents per kilowatt hour, and we're here we're paying about 50 cents," said Sen.-elect Craig W. Barshinger, who will lead a new Senate Committee on Economic Development, Energy and Technology. "We have people living in their homes without the ability to purchase current, and the time has come for us to find some longterm, mid-term and short-term solutions. I'm going to make sure that we don't get distracted by things that are petty and unimportant, so that six months from now we can have a vision of where we're going, and two years from now we can say that we're on the road to meeting that goal. It's going to be my number-one priority."
As President-elect Barack Obama brings the country closer to a universal health-care program, the time has also come for the territory to find solutions for the thousands of local employees working without health insurance, said Sen. Patrick Simeon Sprauve, who will chair the Senate's Committee on Health, Hospitals and Human Services. The first move toward that goal is setting up an advisory committee to look at the pros and cons of such a system, along with some of the issues faced by employers who have to dip into their coffers to cover premium costs.
"If we don't have a healthy community, then people won't be around to see the initiatives that we're talking about here come to pass," he said. Of course, making sure that the territory's hospitals manage their money efficiently and provide quality care to patients is also part of that process, Sprauve said.
Balancing critical development projects with the need to preserve the territory's natural resources is also a top priori
ty for Sen. Alvin L. Williams, who will lead the Senate's Committee on Planning and Environmental Protection for a second term.
Sanes discussed putting more police officers on the streets to stymie the territory's rising crime levels. He will take the helm of the Senate's Committee on Public Safety, Homeland Security and Justice.
"Education also continues to play a major role in this process," Sanes said Monday. "A large amount of our inmates don't have a high school diploma, so we can see the correlation between this lack of education and the crime we see in our community. More collaboration between the Department of Education and the V.I. Police Department is needed to resolve this issue."
Thurland will also double as head of the Senate's Committee on Rules and Judiciary, while newcomer Wayne James will take over the Senate's Committee on Education, Youth and Culture.
At a later date the majority will announce heads of the Senate's committees on Housing, Sports and Veterans Affairs and Labor and Agriculture, James said.
Hill will also serve as the Senate's liaison to the U.S. Congress, while Wayne James will serve as the liaison to the White House. Barshinger will also serve as the Senate's liaison to the Department of the Interior.
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