Citing the government’s need to cut back on expenses during the current economic downturn, Gov. John deJongh Jr. vetoed several bills Wednesday that he said the territory’s budget cannot presently support.
"It is clear that to approve these bills will perpetuate the practice of appropriating government funds which do not exist and disregarding the fiscal realities under which the territory operates in its state of economic distress," the governor wrote in a letter sent to Senate President Louis P. Hill along with the vetoed bills. "
The vetoed bills:
–appropriate $3 million from the Internal Revenue Matching Fund to the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital for renovations and upgrades to the emergency room;
–set up a new, separate revolving fund to pay National Guard members, to be funded up to $200,000 when funds are available;
— appropriate: $300,000 from the Internal Revenue Matching Fund for a new mammogram machine at Luis Hospital; $80,000 each to the Luis Hospital’s Cardiac Center and the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute; $150,000 to the Health Department for the Home Health Program; $150,000 to the Human Services Department for medical alert bracelets; $50,000 to Human Services for the Meals on Wheels program; and $150,000 to Human Services for the Homemaker’s program;
— appropriate $107,500 to Our Town Frederiksted for operating expenses; and
— appropriate $70,865 to Public Works for flood mitigation projects in Estate Hannah’s Rest on St. Croix, along with another $110,091 from the General Fund to the V.I. Water and Power Authority for extension of the waterline to the Water Bay Village Condominiums on St. Thomas.
DeJongh also vetoed a bill Wednesday that bans texting or watching television while driving. In his letter to Hill, the governor said the bill puts in place restrictions that conflict with an existing law allowing residents to take or make cell phone calls if they use a headset or earpiece.
The governor also exercised his veto power on a bill enacting the V.I. Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act, which allows the Recorder of Deeds to modernize property records by transitioning from a paper system to electronic recording and storage of property records.
