Hooray for Delegate Christensen! The finances of the Virgin Islands have been in shambles for too long, and old rhetoric about how they will be improved is just that, old rhetoric. Governor Turnbull and his cabinet are not going to fix this problem, not now, not next year, nor the next.
He needs to take his head out of the sand and admit that yes, the financial management of the territory is the responsibility of the executive and legislative branch, but when you have warm bodies in those positions who cannot effectively manage the finances, then the responsible thing to do is to bring in someone who can.
The people of the Virgin Islands should not continue to suffer while the administration fumbles with visions of a fix based on this notion that "this is our situation, and we will have to get ourselves out of it." It simply is not going to happen. And how can we go back if we have never left the 19th century?
Enough is enough. It is time to seek some intelligence in financial matters. If it means turning that department over to a chief financial officer, if it means involving the federal government, then so be it. Perhaps it would not be a bad idea to turn over the entire V.I. government's affairs to the feds.
Let's not forget that if the people of the Virgin Islands had not hit the ceiling when this same government decided that huge salary raises were appropriate for certain individuals in certain positions, Turnbull would not have raised an eyebrow. But yet he feels that Christensen is overstepping her boundaries. Mr. Turnbull, I hope that Christensen will move forward with this bill.
Nilsa Baird
Durham, North Carolina
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