USVI Legislature Casts Aside Bryan Plan to Pay 8 Percent Salary Cut, Decides to Do it Themselves
A piece of legislation forwarded to the Senate this week by Governor Albert Bryan whose purpose is to make retro payments over the course of two fiscal years to employees whose salaries were cut by 8 percent through the Virgin Islands Economic Stability Act of 2011 (VIESA), has been cast aside by members of the 34th Legislature for another measure that seeks to get the job done in a single year.
That's according to a release the 34th Legislature issued Friday. Senate President Donna Frett-Gregory provided further details during an interview with the Consortium. The release states that the Senate's measure, sponsored by Sens. Kurt Vialet, Ms. Frett-Gregory, Novelle Francis and Janelle Sarauw, will repay the affected employees by Dec. 31, 2021. "As the entity that is responsible for identifying and appropriating funds, the 34th Legislature has been diligently working since January through its committee and subcommittee process on reviewing and verifying the government’s collections and expenditures so that legislation can be crafted to address critical bread and butter issues facing the community," the release stated.
The lawmakers also chided the administration for what they said was its lack of a plan to utilize excess revenue realized in 2020. “It is clear that the executive branch does not have a plan in place to utilize the excess revenue collections,” Ms. Frett-Gregory said. “The repayment to VIESA affected employees is a liability that can be addressed in the current fiscal year with a supplemental appropriation.”
The Legislature will be convening a Committee of the Whole on June 23 to discuss the expenditure of Covid-19 related federal funds and the status of Cares Act funds, along with proposed legislation that will require Legislative approval for the expenditure of federal stimulus funding.
Read more: https://viconsortium.com/vi-politics/virgin-islands-legislature-casts-aside-bryan-plan-to-pay-8-percent-cut-decides-to-do-it-themselves-in-current-fiscal-year-