Nellie Varlack, director of business and administration for the Governor’s Office, presented the executive office’s Fiscal Year 2014 General Fund budget request of $9.2 million – about $900,000 more than last year.
That includes $9 million from the General Fund and $150,000 from the Tourism Revolving Fund. Wages and salaries of personnel account for $5.2 million or 60 percent of the total; Social Security, Medicare, pension and medical benefits account for another $1.6 million or 18 percent. Utility bills are budgeted at $514,000.
"Other Services" comes in at $1.6 million, with $430,000 of that for "routine monthly professional services as well as to support special projects coordination" and other purposes. Another $303,000 of "other services" is for monthly phone, Internet and postage costs. Travel accounts for $198,000 of this category. And $193,000 is for "miscellaneous items" and hosting community related activities and functions.
The budget for the Office of the Governor also includes $8.2 million in the miscellaneous section of the budget. Much of that is for Legal Services of the Virgin Islands and the V.I. Economic Development Authority, which are funded through the Office of the Governor, for budgetary purposes only. The miscellaneous section of the governor’s budget funds the EDA at $4.9 million and Legal Services at $1.1 million. Another $1.4 million goes to expenses related to the Hovensa closure and an array of celebrations and activities make up the remainder of miscellaneous funding in the Office of the Governor.
Varlack highlighted some of the activities within the Governor’s Office over the last year, above and beyond overseeing all the executive agencies.
The senators also heard testimony regarding the Bureau of Economic Research, with its director, Wharton Berger, presenting the BER’s budget request of $787,000, with $637 from the General Fund and $150,000 from the Tourism Revolving Fund. That is a $50,000 increase from last year.
The Tourism Revolving Fund is replenished by the territory’s 8 percent hotel room occupancy tax.
The BER collects and compiles economic data such as territorial gross domestic product, the consumer price index and other data to help the government form policies.
V.I. Board of Education Chairman Oswin Sewer and Vice Chair Nandi Sekou presented their board’s budget request of $3 million. Like other departments, the Board of Education is suffering from budget cuts. “The board remains committed to support all the educational initiatives of the community. However it is becoming more and more difficult to do so with reduction of its budget annually," Sewer said.
Both urged more funding for scholarships and suggested that money for nursing scholarships could be partly diverted to other uses.
The nursing scholarship allotment of $400,000 per year is not working as hoped, Sekou said. Many are not completing the degree and, of those who completed, some have not been able to pass the board exam, she said. Often students start with nursing and then realize the math component is more than they expected and then they switch majors, Sekou said.
The V.I. Board of Education is requesting to put $100,000 of that into the Evadney Petersen Scholarship, which is only funded at $10,000, for two scholarships annually. That scholarship is for students in physical therapy, public health, psychology and other medical fields.
"The need for more counselors and psychologists in our schools is of paramount importance and the ration of students to counselor or /psychologist must be decreased," Sekou said. She suggested taking another $100,000 of that funding to use for scholarships for students of education.
The Board of Education budget of $3 million includes $1.7 million from the General Fund and $1.3 million from the Miscellaneous Fund. This is a 3.5 percent decrease from last year.
No votes were taken at the information gathering hearing.
In the afternoon, the Rules and Judiciary Committee unanimously approved several board and commission nominations, sending them on for a final vote before the full Senate.
Approved were:
– Dr. Kenneth Fox to the Board of Podiatry Examiners for the District of St. Thomas/St. John. Fox has served on the board for many years and has been renominated for another term. He graduated the Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in 1965. He came to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1975 on vacation and learned from the commissioner of health at the time that there was no podiatrist and those needing podiatric care had to travel to Puerto Rico. He moved here and set up practice in 1976.
– Ian Douglas to the Pharmacy Board for the District of St. Thomas/St. John. Douglas is a graduate of Howard University, with experience in hospital and community pharmacies. He was recently certified as an Expert in HIV by the Academy of HIV medicine and is the only pharmacist in the region with that certification licensed to practice in the territory.
– Andrew Rutnik to the Public Services Commission, representing St. Thomas/St. John. Rutnik, a St. John resident, has lived in the territory for 45 years. He was commissioner of the Division of Licensing and Consumer Affairs from 1998 through 2006. He is owner of Virgin Green on St. John. He is a real estate broker.
– Robert DeBonis to the Board of Chiropractic Examiners, representing the St. Thomas/St. John District. DeBonis received a chiropractic degree from New York Chiropractic College in 1978 and received a bachelor’s from Queens College CUNY in 1973. He has been a chiropractor for 35 years and has had a practice in the territory since 2007.
