The Senate Finance Committee considered a bill Tuesday aiming to borrow $75 million from future federal road funds to work on St. Croix roads now, but the members held the proposed legislation after testimony that it would not have the intended effect.
The bill sponsored by Sen. Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly would authorize the Public Works commissioner to borrow money through federal Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles or GARVEE bonds. It says any proceeds must be used on St. Croix to pave historic roads in Christiansted and Frederiksted; all major thoroughfares, including Queen Mary Highway, Melvin H. Evans Highway and Northside Road; and all north-south arteries.
It also directs the Department of Public Works to submit a scope of work to the Legislature within 60 days of enactment. The bill specifies $50 million, but O’Reilly said that was a typographical error and would be corrected.
Introducing the bill, O’Reilly pointed to many rapidly deteriorating road sections on the island and recalled the economic hardship and high unemployment St. Croix is enduring at the moment.
Several St. Croix residents, including George Flores, Robert Schuster and Carol Johnson, testified to the need for roadwork.
GARVEE grants are only for new construction and to complete rebuilding of federal roads and they cannot be used for repair, repaving and maintenance of federal roads, much less local roads, according to testimony from Public Works Commissioner Darryl Smalls. As a result, much of the roadwork anticipated in the bill cannot be funded this way, Smalls said.
Smalls added that the federal government has new guidelines for GARVEE funded projects and you cannot submit a grant application until all the preliminary design and study work is done and you get all the estimates. As a result, any new list of projects would take upwards of 18 months, at a minimum, to get going, he said.
But GARVEE bonds are a useful vehicle and Public Works has begun a process “as a prelude” to securing a GARVEE bond to fund two major projects, Smalls said. Those are Veterans Drive on St. Thomas and Melvin Evans Highway on St. Croix.
O’Reilly proposed Smalls identify those projects that are far enough along to capture GARVEE funds. Smalls said he is proposing a combination of projects with several funding sources, including GARVEE bonds, "that we can get under way right away." He listed $97.8 million in capital work on St. Croix and $86 million on St. Thomas planned for the next three years.
Voting to hold the bill were Sens. Judi Buckley, Donald Cole, Myron Jackson, Clarence Payne and Clifford Graham. Sen. Terrence "Positive" Nelson voted no. O’Reilly abstained.
