Owners of historic V.I. properties will be required to maintain and restore them or face fines of up to $5,000 per day, but owners will receive tax breaks to help with the work if a bill approved by the Rules and Judiciary Committee Thursday becomes law.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Louis Hill, Sammuel Sanes and Janette Millin-Young, allows owners who live in historic properties to deduct the full cost of renovations from their property taxes through an exemption of up to 10 years. Commercial or rental property owners would be able to deduct half the cost of renovations from their taxes.

Those who can demonstrate the work is impractical or that they cannot afford it would be able to get an exemption and a complex system of approvals and appeals is laid out in the 40-page bill. While fines may be imposed, there is no provision for property to be attached and sold for failure to comply with any of the bill’s provisions. The bill would create a historic preservation commission fund and the power to make loans.

Speaking in support of the bill, Hill said it "establishes some processes that hopefully will reduce the blight in our historic districts that will give people who own buildings that are dilapidated some sort of impetus to bring them back to some form that is usable."

The committee voted unanimously to send the bill on to the full Senate. Voting yea were Sens. Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Ronald Russell, Sammuel Sanes, Patrick Sprauve, Celestino White and Usie Richards.

The committee also approved a bill from Sprauve to loosen the requirement that all companies incorporated in the territory have at least three directors. The requirement has historically placed a burden on some smaller companies, especially where there is a single owner who must coordinate management decisions with directors who have no financial stake in the enterprise. The bill would generally still require at least three directors, but would create an exemption so that no company will be required to have more directors than shareholders.

"We are talking about making life easier for people who want to own their own businesses," Sprauve said, speaking in support of the bill.

Rules and Judiciary also approved bills:

— Appropriating $300,000 from the St. John Capital Improvement Fund for a vendors plaza on St. John;
— Increasing maximum fines for health care providers who seek up-front payment, rather than awaiting insurance payment, from $5,000 to $13,000;
— Providing for the maintenance and use of electronic medical records, clarifying individual rights with respect to he disclosure of information contained in electronic medical records and clarifying the protection of privacy of electronic medical records;
— Allowing new hotel developers to pledge their hotel room and casino taxes as security to help them finance the projects (See: add link to other story.)

An unfunded bill from Hansen, appropriating $3 million for a possible future mental health facility on St. Croix, was held in committee at the sponsor’s request.