Businessman Jeffrey Prosser, along with nine administration officials, will testify before a Committee of the Whole session beginning at 10 a.m. Friday. The meeting was convened to consider the bailout proposal Prosser made to the V.I. government and later withdrew. The deal was exposed on April 1 in the V.I. Daily News, which is owned by Prosser.
Prosser announced on April 28, after much controversy and dissension from union leaders, that he was withdrawing his offer, which involved paying off retroactive wages owed to union workers with 1,000 acres of land in St. Croix in exchange for complete tax breaks for Prosser's Innovative Communication Corp. for 30 years. Prosser is the sole owner of ICC.
In response to a petition calling for an agreement to be executed between the V.I. government and ICC, which was circulated by St. Croix Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen and signed by eight senators, Senate President Vargrave Richards called Friday's session.
Along with using the land to pay off workers, Prosser also committed to building several public projects on all three islands, including a drag strip and ballfield for St. Croix, a library for St. Thomas and a community center for St. John.
Glenn Smith, president of the St. Thomas-St. John American Federation of teachers told Radio One labor intends to be at the meeting.
Smith said he wants to make sure there are "no more 100 percent tax holidays. Those days are over."
