Requests from Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Lorraine Berry earlier this year that administration financial officers produce fund balances and verifiable receipts went unheeded at Monday's Finance committee hearing on the Fiscal Year 2001 budget.
Testifying was Ira R. Mills, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Bernice Turnbull, Finance commissioner, and members of their staffs. In a meeting earlier this year, Mills said verifiable receipts would not be available until FY 2000 was over. On Monday, Berry pointed out time had expired and the Fiscal Accountability Act mandates these receipts.
Turnbull said to produce the receipts, Finance would have to have a contractual agreement with an auditing firm to do the work. Berry said, "We have to have these receipts before we can pass the budget."
Berry had asked Turnbull in August for balances in a long list of funds that Finance manages. Turnbull didn't have the figures, but promised to supply them by the end of the day.
In the afternoon session, Turnbull produced all but four of the balances, which the committee will now go over. The $1 emergency services fund tacked onto all V.I. Telephone Corp. bills, was missing, but Turnbull said she would get it.
Mills testified in support of OMB's budget request of $2.1 million, divided about equally between the General Fund and the Indirect Cost Fund. He said OMB would spend an additional $1 million, but because that amount is 90 percent controlled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he didn't include it in his request. OMB is the lead agency for administration of disaster funding.
The V.I. Water and Power Authority was the focus of much discussion. Berry asked Mills if the $1 million the Legislature appropriated last week to the teacher's salaries was in addition to, or in lieu of, the money WAPA pays each year to Finance in lieu of taxes. "If it doesn't say, 'in addition to,' then it's in lieu of," Berry said, "and we'll be out $1 million on the revenue side of the budget."
Turnbull appeared surprised at this. "We don't get any money from WAPA each year, not for a long time. If it's in lieu of taxes," she said with a laugh, "I hope they send a check for FY 2000 tomorrow."
Berry wanted to know what each department had allotted to pay its WAPA bills, an inquiry she had voiced at last Friday's hearing, and one of the reasons the committee believes it must line-item the budget. Mills said $8 million had been set aside to pay WAPA.
But WAPA Executive Director Raymond George contacted Berry during the hearing with the actual figures for what the government owes WAPA–$37 million. He said the government owes $3.1 million each month.
The daylong session was occasionally rancorous as senators and administration officials tossed figures back and forth. Sen. Gregory Bennerson explained to Mills that the Senate felt that they had to line-item the budget in order to get things paid.
"Your magic isn't working," he said, "or we're working from different pages."
Mills maintained that the "less money you have the more flexible you have to be." He said that was why he was in favor of lump sum rather than line-item budgets.
Mills said he couldn't explain the $75 million to $100 million budget gap legislative Post Auditor Campbell Malone had cited in earlier hearings until Malone "breaks it down."
Sen. Violet Anne Golden was blunt, as more and different budget figures were put into play. "I feel like getting on a plane and going home right now," she said. She compared the administration's attitude toward the Senate as that of an adult placating a child: "'They'll buy anything'-that's what they think of us," she said.
Berry said the problem was that Gov. Charles W. Turnbull had planned on having funds available from the sale of part of WAPA to Southern Energy, Inc., and when that didn't happen, he came up with taxes and fees which, she said, "this body will not support."
"Some people in this body and some people in the executive branch won't level with the people," she said, "and that's where the problem lies."
Sen. George Goodwin said, "There's at least $40 million in property taxes to be collected." Turnbull said Finance had tried to "outsource" collection of these taxes, but the $5 million bid was too high. Finance planned a bonus program to "give our employees the opportunity to collect these taxes for a monetary incentive."
On another note, Sen. David Jones said the Crucian Coalition-a political group formed earlier this year on St. Croix-was seeking to influence American Federation of Teachers members and undermine the government. He said they had been responsible for the weekend AFT vote in which St. Croix resoundingly decided to stay on strike, as opposed to St. Thomas, where the vote was in favor of settling.
Jones pointed out that in earlier votes, it had been St. Thomas in favor of the strike and St. Croix against it. "Something is definitely afloat," Jones said. He said the coalition wants the strike to continue until elections next month.
Attending Monday's hearing were committee members Berry, Golden, Bennerson, Jones and Goodwin. Nonmembers present were Sens. Adelbert "Bert" Bryan and Donald "Ducks" Cole.