The West Indian Co. Ltd.’s finances are stretched so thin that for several years it hasn’t been able to turn over the $700,000 it’s supposed to pay the local government each year in lieu of taxes, senators learned Tuesday during a Finance Committee budget hearing.
Andrea Smith, WICO’s acting president and chief executive officer, said Tuesday at the hearing that a partial payment of $200,000 for 2008 was made in 2010, but she was doubtful that the company would be able to pay in 2011 and 2012. They are required by law to do so.
This irked several senators, especially when they learned that WICO contributes more than $200,000 a year to help fund various nonprofit organizations.
“You made it a priority to make those contributions instead of to the central government. Apparently WICO decided we’ll forget the law,” Sen. Louis P. Hill said.
According to Smith, WICO’s fortunes began to change when the economy started to fall and when the V.I. Port Authority opened the Crown Bay port.
“The cruise ships successfully play one against the other,” said committee chair Sen. Carlton Dowe, referring to the Port Authority and WICO.
Hill took it further and said that the government’s executive branch must insist that the Port Authority, WICO and the Tourism Department negotiate together with the cruise lines for the good of the territory.
Dowe claimed the Port Authority was allowed to develop its Crown Bay port without regard to the WICO operation because the government lacked leadership.
A bill now in the legislative hopper seeks to remedy that situation by forging some sort of relationship between the Port Authority and WICO. What shape that will take remains to be seen, but Sen. Ronald Russell suggested that WICO manage both cruise ship ports while the Port Authority retains ownership of the Crown Bay port.
Gershwain Sprauve, WICO’s chief operating officer, said that St. Thomas needs WICO’s three cruise ship berths at Havensight and the Port Authority’s two at Crown Bay to make St. Thomas a successful cruise ship port.
Smith said she doesn’t support the bill merging WICO and the Port Authority’s Crown Bay operation because it doesn’t protect non-union WICO employees.
The WICO management team was at the Legislature building on St. Thomas to discuss its fiscal year 2012 budget. Sprauve said revenues were expected to stand at $8.7 million and expenditures at $5.79 million.
While the senators grill WICO management on its budget and operations every year during the budget process, they have no say in the company’s finances because WICO is an independent entity.
In addition to Hill, Russell and Dowe, Sens. Patrick Simeon Sprauve and Janette Millin-Young attended the meeting.
