Fiscal Responsibility in the Virgin Islands

Governor Exercises Veto Power in Name of Fiscal Responsibility

Citing the government's need to cut back on expenses during the current economic downturn, Gov. John deJongh Jr. vetoed several bills Wednesday that he said the territory's budget cannot presently support.
"It is clear that to approve these bills will perpetuate the practice of appropriating government funds which do not exist and disregarding the fiscal realities under which the territory operates in its state of economic distress," the governor wrote in a letter sent to Senate President Louis P. Hill along with the vetoed bills. "

Link to entire article on VI Source: http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2009/11/25/governor-ex...

What an incredibly difficult veto by the Governor. These all seem like valid needs of the community, and with so many tied to health care compounds the difficulty in holding back funds for such benefits.

But I applaud the Governor for not appropriating funds that simply do not exist. The world needs more fiscally responsible leaders. There just are not enough funds to go around for all of our needs, and everyone needs to accept that fact. Government needs to be run more like a business if it wishes to survive financially.

This is progress in thinking here in the Virgin Islands, at least in my opinion from the experience I have had since 1991. In the past, we continued to increase debt to huge amounts per capita. We continually spent more than we had.

Most notably, we had an incredible amount of excess government employees. This is very apparent by the current condition of GERS. It doesn't seem as bad as in the past right now, but we still have an incredibly high percentage of our labor force working for the Government of the Virgin Islands. If we can reduce these expenditures, it will help even more. Wages are a bit askew, as well, as evidenced by the high Senator payrolls when compared to all of the States.

All in all, things seem to be improving, even in these very tough economic times, thanks to a little fiscal responsibility.