Acting quickly on bills passed by the Senate during last month’s marathon session, Gov. John deJongh Jr. over the weekend signed into law a bill imposing a $1 per passenger fee – or ocean common carrier tax – that will be assessed against every cruise ship passenger to St. Thomas-St. John.
The revenue would be collected by the V.I. Port Authority and remitted to the General Fund, which senators have said could help finance a wide range of infrastructure improvements within both districts, making the territory more attractive to visitors.
The bill’s final section also allows cruise ships docked on St. Thomas-St. John to operate their onboard casinos while in port after 5 p.m. The casinos would be available for passengers only, which officials have said would give the cruise ships more incentive to stay later within the territory.
The new fee is set to take effect Oct. 1, but in a letter sent over the weekend to Senate President Ronald E. Russell along with the approved bills, deJongh suggested the date be pushed back to Jan. 1, 2012, to coincide with the implementation of a new two-percent increase in existing hotel room tax rates and to allow stakeholders within the tourism industry to adjust their prices and prepare their customers for the extra costs.
The governor also signed into law a bill requiring Public Works to use a "sufficient portion" of the fees it collects from the Fort Christian Parking Lot for the construction of a multilevel – no more than three stories – parking structure that could still incorporate offices and other government agencies, while leaving an open area for Carnival activities.
The proposed structure would basically encompass the perimeter of the Fort Christian Parking Lot, extending along Norre Gade to include the Credit Union and old Callwood Command center, leaving the lot’s existing interior open and available for activities, such as the annual Carnival Village, that currently go on there.
An amendment tacked on to parking bill during a recent Rules and Judiciary Committee meeting also inserts a definition for "severance pay" into the existing plant closing law, which deJongh said in his letter to Russell corrects a "fatal flaw" in the code.
DeJongh also acknowledged receipt of two resolutions that ratified major coast zone permits:
• Modifying the existing permit for Marriott Frenchman’s Reef Resort, which would allow for the rebuilding of the dock already on the property, construction of a pump house and the installation of a 300-foot intake line into the bay – all components that the hotel’s manager has described as a necessary part of the infrastructure needed for the overall project; and
• Allowing Impex Trading International, doing business as Sea Chest, to tear down and remove its outside storage and office trailers so it can expand the store and warehouse by 8,400 square feet and retrofit both the new and old building to make the business more energy efficient. The bill also extends Sea Chest’s lease agreement, allowing the store to continue to occupy 42,253 square feet of submerged lands in Crown Bay for 20 years, at an annual rate of $65,000.
Other bills signed into law would:
• Rezone .6024 acres in Estate Bonne Resolution on St. Thomas from R-1 (residential-low density) to R-2 (residential -low density -one and two family,) which allows the owners to divide the land in two for their heirs;
• Rezone .86 acres in Estate St. Peter on St. Thomas from R-1 (residential-low density) to R-2 (residential-low density-one and two family) to allow the owners to divide the land between their heirs;
• Appropriate $14.1 million in Retro Claim funding received through the reimbursement of federal Medicaid money for fiscal years 2007 through 2009 to the Health Department to operate the Medical Assistance Program;
• Appropriate $2 million from the Tourism Revolving Fund during fiscal year 2012 to "exclusively advertise St. Croix as a tourist destination;"
• Set up a pilot e-book (electronic book) program for local public schools beginning no later than the start of the 2012-2013 school year and funding it; and
• Honor the late Elmo D. Roebuck Sr. and name a portion of Route 30 on St. Thomas – from Mandela Circle to Donkey Hill – the "Elmo D. Roebuck Sr. Drive."
The governor said he had vetoed a request rezoning of .740 acres in Estate Neltjberg on St. Thomas – from R-1 (residential-low density) to R-2 (residential-low density-one and two family,) that wpuld have allowed the owners to split the land in two – because he shared concerns from Planning and Natural Resources about the development of the site since it has a steep slope, and because the opposition to the project was "great" from neighboring land owners.
He also vetoed a bill appropriating $500,000 from the Education Initiative Fund to the Labor Department for a summer employment program for high school and college students throughout the territory.
When the bill first came up for debate in the Senate, Education Department officials explained that the fund was tapped out, but bill sponsor Sen. Janette Millin-Young subsequently said her staff uncovered inconsistencies in the financial figures submitted by Education, and through research, had determined that the fund would be nearly $1 million in the black this fiscal year.
In his recent letter to Russell, deJongh said that while he supports the intent of the bill, Labor "finds its present budget of $1 million to administer the program to be sufficient at this time." DeJongh also objected to an amendment tacked onto the bill during a recent Rules Committee hearing that re-appropriates $2 million previously earmarked for repairs to St. Croix’s Paul E. Joseph Stadium to the V.I. Housing Finance Authority to cover architectural and engineering services, along with infrastructure work, for a multi-purpose indoor complex in Estate Stoney Ground.
DeJongh said the amendment "jeopardize the funding" that Housing, Parks and Recreation had identified and was prepared to use to cover the pre-construction phase of a new multi-purpose sports complex proposed to be built at the Paul E. Joseph Stadium.
"The department will soon be executing an agreement to secure such pre-construction services and relies on this funding source to meet those obligations," deJongh wrote.