The Office of Management and Budget will pay utility bills for every part of the V.I. government, making it impossible for agencies to divert the funds to other needs, if a bill sent out of committee Thursday for a final Senate vote becomes law.
Bill 30-0017 – sponsored by Sens. Terrence "Positive" Nelson, Craig Barshinger and Kenneth Gittens – would also create a unified "single payer utility fund" from which to pay government utility bills.
Nelson said that by helping government agencies pay on time, the bill would help the V.I. Water and Power Authority’s cash flow, which should help it keep up with maintenance and become more efficient.
Barshinger said the bill will "give us a Water and Power Authority that has a chance of professionalizing."
"There is no way we can expect WAPA to improve if we don’t even give them their regular payment,” he said.
“WAPA bills have been treated in a cavalier manner and WAPA has not been paid on a regular basis. If we do this, it may start a chain of events" that lead to a much more efficient public utility company, he said.
The Rules and Judiciary Committee attached two amendments before voting to send the bill out of committee with a favorable recommendation. One, from Nelson, made several technical changes to the language. The other, from Barshinger, added language to allow the government to use its digital accounting system to handle the payments.
The committee also approved a bill sponsored by Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly to authorize the government to use $300,000 in bond proceeds from a $7 million bond authorization approved by the Legislature in 2012 to purchase new police radios and improve tower communications in the territory. [30-0120]
During earlier committee hearings, Finance Commissioner Angel Dawson testified that the funding did not actually exist at present because the government negotiated a $6.7 million bond issuance, not a $7 million one.
"We would have to go back to the financial institution to see if we can increase it," Dawson said at the time. "I am not saying it cannot be done, but that the loan amount was actually $6.7 million, not $7 million," he said.
The committee approved resolution 30-0140 sponsored by Sen. Myron Jackson declaring an "energy crisis" in the territory and urging the governor to make a similar declaration, after adding an amendment from Jackson asking the federal government to donate $640 million to the territory. The amendment requests $540 million to subsidize utility costs for two years and $100 million to help move to alternative forms of power production.
And Rules and Judiciary approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Sammuel Sanes raising the maximum loan the V.I. Housing Finance Authority could make to veterans through its veteran home loan program from $110,000 to $220,000.
The bill brings the veterans program in line with the authority’s other loan programs.
Voting yea on each bill and resolution were Gittens, Barshinger, Sanes, Jackson, Sens. Diane Capehart, Janette Millin Young and Donald Cole. Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone was absent.
