When the Crucian Christmas Festival Organization defended its $450,000 budget request in Senate hearings Thursday, senators chastised Davidson Charlemagne, the organization’s president, for not providing details of how the money is to be spent, what the organization’s revenues and expenses are, and other budgetary information. Charlemagne said he was caught somewhat unprepared when the hearing was announced because in previous years their budget was presented as part of the Department of Tourism’s budget presentation.
"The three of us still here at this point are St. Croix senators who want to support you," said Sen. Usie Richards. "But you can’t give me piece of paper saying these are activities we had, these are the revenues collected, these are expenses paid out? Not even that is being presented to us. … you put us in a very embarrassing situation."
Although he received a letter outlining what information to provide the Senate, he and others in the organization had been under the misimpression they were to provide the information to Tourism, Charlemagne said.
"If you were not ready, to be honest, perhaps you should have requested another date," said Sen. Sammuel Sanes.
After some contentious exchanges with several senators over the lack of detail, Charlemagne revealed he had much of the relevant information at hand, but what he had was only partly complete and not in a user-friendly form.
Sen. Wayne James, chairing the hearing in the absence of Finance Committee Chairman Carlton "Ital" Dowe, asked Charlemagne to bring more complete accounts of the organization’s finances for the committee Friday morning.
The Bureau of Motor Vehicles also defended their budget Thursday in Frederiksted.
The BMV is requesting a total 2010 budget appropriation of $3.5 million, a reduction of two percent over fiscal 2009. That amount includes $2.5 million from the general fund and $1 million from the BMV Fund. The BMV anticipates receiving $907,000 from personalized license plate funds, for total projected 2010 revenues of $4.4 million.
The BMV is right now setting up motorcycle licensing and safety training classes and plans to have online vehicle registration by the end of next fiscal year, director Jerris Browne told the committee.
"We are looking forward to fully implementing this (motorcycle) program by the end of this fiscal year," Browne said. "Which we believe will have the positive impact of saving lives on our roadways."
Once implemented, motorcycle riders will need a separate motorcycle license and will have to pass a separate motorcycle safety test.
The cost of the motorcycle program is a modest $34,000 and the bureau can pay for it with funds that are already available, Browne said.
No votes were taken at the budget oversight hearing. Present were James, Richards, Sanes, Sens. Craig Barshinger, Louis Hill, Nereida "Nellie" O’Reilly, Terrence "Positive" Nelson, Patrick Sprauve and Carlton "Ital" Dowe.