Feb. 11, 2009 — The committee on Taxation, Finance and Commerce for the 5th V.I. Constitutional Convention met for an hour Wednesday evening, then adjourned due to a lack of a quorum.
While no votes were taken, several of the delegates present said they would like more expert input on passages dealing with property taxes, bonding authority and related, highly technical areas. Before the committee was text on taxation from the 4th V.I. Constitutional Convention and draft alternative text.
"I suggest we send both to Professor (Dorothea) Beane and get some comment," said Delegate Arnold Golden.
Beane is a professor of law at Florida's Stetson University and director of that school's nascent Institute for Caribbean Law and Policy. She has offered free research and advisory services in exchange for getting her students directly involved with legal research for a real, ongoing constitutional convention.
Douglas Capdeville also wanted technical input.
"Some of this is highly technical and we are not experts," Capdeville said. "I am not willing to vote on this now, without technical advice, and risk being embarrassed by the result later. … I'm not talking just about Professor Beane. I'm talking about people here who are very knowledgeable in Virgin Islands law governing these issues."
Golden suggested that staying with the language from the fourth convention would be a safe, conservative approach.
"The fourth constitution passed Congress," he said. "If we are going to deviate from that, we must have some good reason."
Committee Chairman Robert Schuster said he would email and call officials in the Office of the Governor, Office of the Lieutenant Governor, the Internal Revenue Bureau, the Legislature and other bodies who may have people with relevant expertise willing to appear and answer questions for the committee.
The meeting then adjourned.
Present were delegates Schuster, Golden, Capdeville, Schuster and Thomas Moore. Just as the meeting adjourned, delegate Wilma Marsh Monsanto arrived. Non-committee member Mary Moorhead was present in her capacity as secretary for the convention. Absent were delegates Adelbert Bryan, Kendall Petersen and Craig Barshinger.
The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1976 to allow the people of the Virgin Islands and Guam to adopt territorial constitutions. Any constitution has to be consistent with federal law and with the U.S. constitution. The government must be republican in form, with executive, legislative and judicial branches, and it must have a bill of rights. But there are few other restrictions. Itsourfuture.vi has excerpts and links to the full text of the relevant laws and much more information.
There have been four previous constitutional conventions, but no territorial constitution yet. The most recent convention was in 1980. For a detailed history of previous conventions and extensive background information on the subject, see "V.I. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS: BACKGROUND."
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