Multimillionaire St. Croix businessman Jeffrey Prosser pledged to put a chunk of his money where his mouth was Monday in his address at the annual meeting of the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce.
Calling for the creation of a private sector-driven task force "to deal specifically with how we are going to grow the economy," he proposed that it consist of seven members — two from the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber, two from the St. Croix Chamber, one from Government House, one from the Legislature and one from his own Innovative Communication Corp. Its task, he said, would be to engage consultants who have specialized in attracting investment to other locales.
And then he pledged to donate $500,000 toward the effort "if others will match $250,000."
While Prosser assailed the government for an essentially anti-business attitude, he directed most of his criticism to the private sector itself. "We've become the whipping boy. . . we don't stand together. . . business just sits there and takes it," he said. And yet, he added, the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber "probably has the ability to become the most politically powerful organization in the Virgin Islands."
He said the Turnbull administration's recently unveiled five-year economic recovery plan, produced by a task force chaired by chamber president John deJongh Jr., "certainly has merit, but many of these ideas have been rehashed and regurgitated" for years, even decades.
His own vision for recovery focuses on "environmentally sensitive growth" through attracting new sustainable industries such as telecommunications, insurance, banking and electronic technology. The competition for such investment is fierce on the mainland, he said, and the territory should follow the lead of states that have succeeded in attracting it.
The proposal, deJongh said, is compatible with the five-year plan, which notes the need for "a competitive economic analysis."
For most of those in the audience of about 250 in the ballroom at Marriott's Frenchman's Beach Resort, it was their first time hearing Prosser speak publicly. Those anticipating defensiveness or discomfort at the microphone were caught by surprise as he pulled few punches in preaching to the private sector choir, but pointing out its collective flaws in the process.
Fluctuating between the corporate "we" and the personal "I," he described the territory's private sector as "a community that seems to have lost its way."
Business has been characterized by "a reluctance to speak out" and "a reluctance to take positions on vital issues," he said. Instead, he said, business leaders have allowed themselves to be "terrorized" by some political leaders "who have cleverly characterized business persons as the villains." Paraphrasing the defunct comic strip character Pogo, he said, "We have met the enemy: ourselves."
After speaking for about 20 minutes from a prepared text, he fielded questions for nearly a half hour more. A few were distinctly loaded. Al Loiten, circulation manager of the V.I. Independent newspaper, asked whether the adversarial relationship between the public and the private sectors was one of "black political leadership and white business community leadership." Prosser, clearly surprised by the question, hesitated for a moment, then replied that it would be "naive to ignore that the anti-business attitude is not restricted to white business owners."
DeJongh noted in introducing Prosser that the chamber board had looked for someone "who had not addressed any groups in the Virgin Islands" to be this year's annual meeting speaker. He also said that Prosser as owner of Vitelco, the Virgin Islands Daily News, Vitelcom, Vitel Cellular, VIPoweNet, St. Thomas-St. John Cable TV, St. Croix Cable TV and the V.I. Community Bank is now the largest private-sector employer in the territory.
Prosser himself tossed out some figures about his private holdings:
– His bank has assets of $75 million now that will leap to more than $500 million if local and federal regulatory bodies approve his bid to acquire the Chase Manhattan Bank operations in the territory.
– His firms employ 665 persons with an annual payroll of more than $40 million.
– Mainly through the Prosser/ICC Foundation, he has contributed more than $2 million a year to community causes.
– He has invested $20 million on St. Croix in constructing a corporate headquarters building and renovating a historic structure.
– On St. Thomas, he plans to put up a 70,000-square-foot office building on the Bluebeard's Hill property where the cable TV headquarters and a structure occupied by Vitelco and the soon-to-relocate tenant, Theodore Tunick & Co., now stand.
He also said the territory's employment level is 41,000 today, down from a high of 49,000 a few years ago when Hess Oil Virgin Islands was building its catalytic cracker, and that 700 jobs were lost last year. The territory has the same number of hotel rooms today as a decade ago, he said, while other Caribbean islands, "often with very little outside help," have expanded their tourism infrastructure and enticed travelers away from the territory.
Meantime, he said, the V.I. government has continued growing, "in total denial" because it "didn't understand or wouldn't accept" what was happening to the economy.
In response, Prosser said, "The silence from the business community is deafening."
He made no direct mention of his own failed effort last year to trade land to the government in exchange for 30 years of tax breaks. But he did say the territory is getting a reputation in the investment circles for "leaving meaningful investors outside to dry in the wind."
Nor did he cite the charges of bribing a senator brought against ICC vice president John Tutein, who was found innocent in court. But he did say that whenever a business entity goes before the Legislature with a proposal, "What is the first thing you hear? ‘Oh, they're paying somebody off.'"
Briefly, he focused on St. Croix, where he resides. The island "is going through incredibly difficult economic times," he said. Calling for a "holistic way" of dealing with the matter, he added, "The economic cost of having one island not growing can never be absorbed by the other."
The one specific instance of government action he cited was the pending early retirement bill. "There's no way any senator who votes to increase benefits without identifying a source of funding should be re-elected," he said, with Sens. Lorraine Berry, Roosevelt David and Violet Anne Golden in the audience.
