While this week’s Senate session was punctuated by heated squabbles between the majority and minority caucuses over an austerity bill that would cut government salaries by 8 percent, both sides still banded together over most of the other measures on their two-day agenda, including a bill to bring a vendor’s plaza to St. John.
In the grand tradition of Senate sessions, the vendor’s plaza bill played host to a number of unrelated amendments, including one that appropriated $950,000 to the Legislature from the government’s Insurance Guaranty Fund for mold and asbestos remediation.
Reading the amendment aloud Wednesday, Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. sped through his words, so the amount and what the money was being used for was not immediately heard. White reread the amendment after loud calls started to emanate from the floor but was eventually supported in his cause by the other senators who said that the employees were starting to get sick.
White said his entire office has been taken over by mold, which has affected at least four of his staffers, and has had to relocate to other senators’ offices. Senate President Ronald E. Russell said the entire first floor of the newly renovated Senate building was being tested for asbestos, which Russell said posed a serious health risk to everyone working there.
Other amendments to the bill allow for: new farmers to apply for loans at the Government Development Bank, which now caters only to those who have been in the business for two or more years; the reprogramming of $50,000 for training initiatives for V.I. Fire Service employees; money set aside for special tech scholarships under the V.I. Board of Education to also be used for students studying cardiovascular medicine; and the reduction of Casino Control Commission members from six to five.
Another amendment sponsored by Sen. Louis P. Hill also allows individuals who own homes in the states to still qualify for a first-time home buyer credit under the V.I. Housing Finance Authority if they move to the territory and don’t currently have any property here.
Meanwhile, an amendment sponsored by Sen. Neville James broadens the territory’s criminal assault statute by adding sections that specifically prohibits attack on teachers or school employees, along with caseworkers, investigators or any other employees within the Health or Human Services departments.
There were some other controversial bills on the agenda, including one that creates a hotel development program within the V.I. Economic Development Authority giving developers the ability pledge their future hotel and casino taxes as loan collateral.
Along with helping developers with information about financing, the program would administer trust funds for each qualifying new development, placing hotel and casino taxes from the qualifying development into the fund, which would then be used to pay a portion of the developer’s loans.
The bill has kicked up concerns in the Senate that it would place existing hotels at an unfair advantage while giving newer developments more "generous" assistance.
Senators did, however, pass bills:
-establishing a veterans’ funeral expense and burial revolving fund and appropriating $50,000 from the Caribbean Basin Initiative Fund as startup money;
-increasing administrative fines for physicians seeking up-front payment, rather than awaiting insurance payment;
– providing for the maintenance and use of electronic medical records, clarifying individual rights with respect to the disclosure of information contained in electronic medical records and clarifying the protection of privacy of electronic medical records;
– authorizing the executive branch to enter into a memorandum of understanding with federal agencies such as U.S. Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and the national Transportation Security Administration, for the sharing of information on firearms, or other weapons and substances entering the territory;
-increasing the government’s car rental fee from $2 to $3.75 and using part of the new money to finish Leonardo "Nardo" Trotman Drive on St. Thomas;
-setting forth new fines for traffic violations, and increasing fines for various existing traffic violations; and
-resolutions honoring and commending the 17 local students who recently won the U.S. Amateur Southern Region Chess Tournament in Orlando, Fla., along with local radio personality Leo Moron.
Senators also unanimously passed the nomination of Steve Brow to head the V.I. Fire Service, along with the nominations of Roderick Moorhead and Henry Richardson to spots on the V.I. Casino Control Commission.
Present during this week’s session were Sens. Craig W. Barshinger, Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Hill, James, Shawn-Michael Malone, Terrence "Positive" Nelson, Nereida Rivera-O’Reilly, Usie R. Richards, Russell, Sammuel Sanes, Patrick Simeon Sprauve, Alvin L. Williams, White and Janette Millin-Young.
Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen was absent.
