A bill giving local business owners a 10-month window in which to pay their outstanding gross receipts taxes without interest or penalties was signed into law Thursday by Gov. John deJongh Jr., along with most of the amendments tacked on to the bill during last month’s Senate session.
One of the amendments pushes back the implementation date of the 2005 Government Employees’ Retirement System (GERS) Reform Act from Jan. 1, 2010 to Jan. 1, 2011. In passing the amendment last month, senators required GERS’ board of trustees to submit to them a plan detailing how the act will be implemented and any changes they recommend by the end of Jan. 2010.
The act, passed in 2005, assigned different levels of benefits to two different tiers of government employees — those hired before the proposed implementation date, and those hired after.
The delay gives the government more time to develop a plan to deal with the eventual retirement of a large number of employees with many years of service, along with the retention and recruitment of new employees, the governor wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Senate President Louis P. Hill.
The amendment will also help address "a real conflict facing the government regarding how to effectively deal with both the payment of leave to retiring government employees and the unfunded liability of the GERS," deJongh wrote.
Another amendment attached to the bill makes appropriated monies available to the Magens Bay Authority for the construction of restrooms at Lindbergh Bay Beach and to the V.I. Boxing Federation for rent and the purchasing of equipment.
DeJongh did line-item veto an amendment requiring Education to create and implement a territory-wide plan for the coordination of "all athletic activities in the territory," but approved a section appropriating $1.2 million from the Education Initiative Fund to support a comprehensive athletic program within the department.
