Recently enacted retirement incentives intended to close a yawning budget gap have prompted fewer retirements than planned because the language in the act is more restrictive than maybe intended, Personnel Department Director Kenneth Hermon said in budget hearings Monday.

As of Aug. 12, the division had more than 270 retirement actions pending but had been told by the V.I. Government Employees’ Retirement System (GERS) only 115 employees met the criteria of the recent Economic Stability Act for $10,000 incentive payments, he said.

The way the act is written, employees needed to have 30 years of "credited service" in the V.I. government as of July 5, the day the act was signed into law, Hermon said. "The GERS defines credited service as service which has been paid for in its entirety to the GERS," Hermon said.

As a result, those who reached the 30-year threshold since then, or who wish to pay into GERS and then retire are being excluded from the retirement program, he said.

During Monday’s hearing, senators also learned about the government’s group health insurance, which is overseen by the Personnel Department. Just more than 16,000 current and former government employees participate in the government’s medical plan underwritten by Cigna Insurance, said Chief of Group Health Insurance Maureen Venzen. Including their dependents, more than 30,000 Virgin Islanders are insured under the plan, she said.

During the budget hearings, Financial Management Supervisor Rochelle Benjamin presented the Personnel Department budget request of $3.2 million. Of this, $2.8 million will come from the General Fund and $381,000 from the Indirect Cost Fund, which consists of federal payments for local government services. The total budget is $335,000 less than last year—and $601,000 less than 2009, Benjamin said.

Wages and salaries account for $1.6 million of the General Fund budget request, with benefits eating up another $660,000. A similar portion of the Indirect Cost Fund budget will be allocated to salaries and benefits, according to the figures provided by Benjamin. Utilities are expected to cost $200,000 and "other services and charges" another $238,000.

No votes were taken at the information-gathering hearing.

Committee members present were Sens. Carlton "Ital" Dowe (chairman), Nereida "Nellie" Rivera- O’Reilly, Janette Millin-Young and Louis Hill. Absent were Sens. Shawn-Michael Malone and Celestino White Sr.