Gov. John deJongh Jr. signed an array of legislation this week, but vetoed measures to move the GERS back to paper pay stubs, re-instate and expand net metering for large scale commercial ventures and eliminate pensions for spouses of deceased governors and lieutenant governors.
All the vetoed measures were approved during legislative session in July without the normal vetting in committee before passage.
When Sen. Sammuel Sanes proposed legislation during the July 29 session requiring the Government Employees Retirement System to give retirees the option of either a paper stub or a digital record, he said the goal was to give retirees something they can quickly get access to, as proof of income for bank loans and the like.
In his letter to the Legislature explaining his actions on recent legislation, deJongh said GERS "already has a system in place to provide a paper copy of check stubs upon request by a retiree."
He said GERS gives paper stubs when requested. But expanding that to generally offering paper stubs as an ongoing option for all retirees "has the effect of reverting back to a costly and antiquated paper system, especially given the fact that GERS is estimated to save $270,000 annually by providing the information electronically," DeJongh said.
"Secondly, the practice employed by GERS is consistent with the federal Social Security Administration’s practice of providing services online and assisting those that are technologically challenged. With increased reliance on technology solutions to be more efficient and to reduce operational costs, this measure would take GERS an expensive step backwards, which is an unpalatable result," deJongh said.
The governor also vetoed legislation sponsored by Sen. Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly to raise the cap of 100 kilowatts on commercial solar power net metering to 500 kilowatts. When introducing the measure during session, O’Reilly said businesses were hurting, especially on St. Croix, and that 100 kilowatts was not enough to power a large business.
Businesses can build larger solar power plants now, but cannot "net-meter," making the V.I. Water and Power Authority purchase that production at full price.
At the time, Sen. Craig Barshinger said net metering is already shut down to new customers because the cap on net-metering wattage, which was put in place to keep the grid stable, has already been "filled on both islands."
"If they think by getting this they are going to be able to march down to DPNR and WAPA they will be sadly deceived," Barshinger said at the time.
DeJongh did not address the question of net metering having reached its cap, but focused on the "fairness" of expanding it to the benefit of large commercial plants designed to make a profit.
A one-to-one net-metering system means ratepayers subsidize the net-metering recipient, deJongh said.
It "was not intended to subsidize private customers in amounts larger than 100 kilowatts," he said. The Feed In Tariff program ensures WAPA does not have to purchase power at a greater cost than its avoided cost- the cost WAPA actually incurs, deJongh said. At the same time, it allows larger producers to still make money selling power to WAPA.
"This is a fairer system for addressing the sale of renewable power to WAPA and already exists in the law," he said. Letting this passage become law would damage WAPA’s finances, "and should only be considered as part of a larger, comprehensive approach to both net metering and FIT programs," he said.
He also vetoed a measure from Sen. Kenneth Gittens to devote some revenue from the government’s $3.75 per car per day rental car fee to a list of road repairs, with instructions that the work be completed before the end of the year.
Of that fee, $1.75 per rental car per day is devoted by existing law to collateral for loans for a different list of road projects. DeJongh said the bill lacks any information on how the funds are to be divided; any information about how much money there may be and any information about the cost of the projects it is supposed to fund.
"Lastly, diverting funds from the initial projects … which have not yet been completed but have commenced, ensures that they will remain incomplete," he said. DeJongh proposed instead that Public Works conduct an analysis of the roads in question and then find a suitable funding source.
He also vetoed a section reducing utilities for the Office of the Governor, saying the change just reduces the funding to below the projected amount needed.
DeJongh vetoed a measure from Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, ending the moratorium on new fishing licenses, saying it "undermines the Department of Planning and Natural Resources Division of Fish and Wildlife’s statutory responsibility to monitor and manage" local fisheries.
The change would also put at risk $1.1 million in federal funding, deJongh said. "Even more troublesome is that this legislation was passed despite the fact that both the St. Thomas Fisherman’s Association and the St. Croix Commercial Fisherman’s Association opposed the measure," he said.
DeJongh said a measure honoring Horace Clark by naming a sports center does not specify which of two projects is meant. As "there is already an existing sports facility in Estate Stoney Ground since 1977 in the town of Frederiksted … named in honor of Horace Clarke, we require guidance as to which new facility is intended to also carry his name," he said.
The governor vetoed a bill sponsored by Gittens to abolish pension payments to spouses of deceased governors and lieutenant governors. The Legislature enacted such pensions in 2012, as a late-night amendment to an omnibus bill containing an array of unrelated legislative provisions.
DeJongh said the bill "is perhaps the worst case of personal and vindictive politics. That it is also special legislation designed to carve out and maintain a benefit for only one individual, no matter how deserving that individual’s case may be, does not change the reality that this proposal’s true intent is meant to be a personal attack on me and nothing else."
"The members of the Legislature are free to attack me as they wish, but to do so by targeting my wife as they have in this bill is both contemptible and cowardly. Those who think that this is proper politics should be ashamed of themselves. This proposal is vetoed for the special legislation it is and the contempt it clearly demonstrates," deJongh said.
He vetoed legislation making "hate crimes" a new category of crime, saying he supported the idea, but was forced to veto it, because of what he believes is an "oversight." If enacted as is, deJongh fears it will "remove a victim’s right to redress," that exists in the current law.
DeJongh approved legislation putting a referendum on cultivation of marijuana for medical and research purposes on the ballot in November.
The governor signed legislation to establish a professorial seat in international relations and diplomacy in honor of the late Ambassador Terence Todman, but said the one-time $100,000 appropriation would not pay for a single year, much less to maintain the professorshp.
He also approved legislation:
- to rename the territory’s prison after former Sen. John Bell;
- approving the sale of the right of way on a parcel of land in Taarneberg;
- updating the territory’s laws regulating dentistry;
- honoring St. Croix resident Betty Lynch, and;
- appropriating $330,000 to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to complete the Real ID Project so the territory can come into compliance with federal law.
