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HomeNewsArchivesGov. DeJongh Outlines Vision for Territory's Future

Gov. DeJongh Outlines Vision for Territory's Future

In his address Monday evening, Gov. deJongh highlighted his administration's achievements and the challenges ahead.The seeds of reform and change planted in the territory three years ago have taken root and begun to push through on the way to creating a new economy and brighter future for the islands, Gov. John deJongh Jr. said Monday during his fourth State of the Territory Address.
"Tonight, although we may not be out of the woods yet, I believe that we are on the right path," deJongh said, appearing before a full session of the Legislature and a packed room of government officials and supporters. "If we persevere together, we will overcome these challenges and we will see a better tomorrow in the days, months and years to come."
As expected, the governor’s speech highlighted his administration’s accomplishments over the past three years, which deJongh said came out of the public’s immediate desire for a more open government and a "brighter future" for its children.
When deJongh first came into office, he spoke about the government’s monumental debt and how he planned to reduce it, while boosting revenues. But as advancements were made, he said the impact of the global economic downturn began to set in, stripping the territory’s coffers and causing the government to run a monthly deficit of $25 million.
"This means that we had $234 million fewer dollars to spend than we did the year before," deJongh said Monday. "To put this in perspective, $234 million is almost half of the cost of salaries and benefits of our government workers for a full year."
Moving forward with an initiative passed by the Legislature to borrow up to $250 million, and pushing ahead with his own reprogramming bill to free up some money for critical government projects, deJongh said the government managed to avoid taking some of the more drastic cost-cutting measures — such as employee layoffs — that were seen on the U.S. mainland and neighboring islands, such as Puerto Rico.
Solidifying the territory’s rum industry through new deals inked with Diageo PLC and Cruzan Rum was also critical, as it secured revenues for both immediate and future needs, he added.
DeJongh’s vision of the territory’s "new future" became evident as he continued. Touching on everything from affordable housing initiatives to boosting the public education system and combating crime, each section of the speech topped off a list of accomplishments with a new goal or initiative aimed at continuing to move the territory forward.
Efforts to revamp hundreds of vacant housing units and spruce up local communities, for example, have finally led to an agreement with U.S. Housing and Urban Development to turn control of the V.I. Housing Authority back over to the local government within 18 months, the governor announced.
The governor said he and Delegate Donna Christensen met with HUD officials and requested an extra $35 million over the next five years to modernize all public housing units in the territory, along with $10 million for more senior housing on St. Thomas and $40 million for new housing and homeownership opportunities for residents in William’s Delight on St. Croix.
The Governor’s Outlook on Education
In news interviews conducted before the governor’s speech, some senators were especially anxious to hear about the state of the territory’s education system, which they said appeared to be facing the same challenges as before.
In his speech, deJongh spoke about many of the challenges, which ranged from Education’s failure to spend federal grant money to the inability of many local schools to meet annual adequate yearly progress (AYP) benchmarks.
Turning that kind of system around takes hard work but after three years, the picture is a bit different, he said. "Today, all of our public high schools are accredited," the governor said. "Today, we are compliant with federal regulations and spending all available federal funds. And this year, we have come close to tripling the number of schools that are meeting their AYP goals."
Special education and school maintenance have long been sore spots for the department. In response, deJongh said, he hired the government’s first Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator to make sure those needs are met.
And after nearly two decades, the government is finally rebuilding the cafeteria and auditorium at Addelita Cancryn Junior High School, and has been upgrading infrastructure at Ulla F. Muller Elementary School, among others.
DeJongh added that the school system will also be expanding, with a new wing at Charlotte Amalie High School in the works, and plans for a new building at Central.
"I stand before you tonight to say that the long-standing neglect of our schools has ended," the governor said.
The Governor on Energy
After "years of false starts," deJongh said the V.I. government is finally moving ahead with a solution to address the territory’s energy crisis–a proposal for two waste-to-energy plants to help manage the territory’s waste issues and cut WAPA’s dependence on oil.
DeJongh threw his full support behind the proposed plants Monday but told residents that the initiative should not "be looked upon as our sole approach to the issue of alternative energy." WAPA is moving ahead with a request for proposals (RFP) for solar energy and is pursuing possible interconnection agreements with Puerto Rico, the governor said.
DeJongh also laid out the foundation for what he called a "clean energy industry" in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which includes the evolution of green jobs, capturing landfill gases for energy and cutting the government’s power bills.
Clean energy also means a clean environment, the governor said, adding that the territory is finally addressing some long-standing issues on St. Croix’s south shore, which includes completely eliminating the infamous brown stain in the water with the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant at the Cruzan Rum distillery.
Meanwhile, after six years of negotiations, Planning and Natural Resources and the U.S Justice Department are close to formalizing a consent decree with Hovensa that would put a half-billion dollars toward upgrading the refinery’s operations and reducing its air emissions within the decade, the governor said.
Cleaner air and water, and a green government were presented alongside plans to keep promoting local capital projects, taking advantage of federal stimulus funds, strengthening tax incentives for businesses and making the territory a hub for technology and emergency-response management within the Caribbean.
That vision is close, deJongh said, but a few important things have to happen first in order for it to materialize.
The Governor on Crime
Namely, the governor said, more has to be done to reduce crime in the territory, which hit a record high of 54 homicides during 2009 — 51 of which involved guns.
Noting the problem of repeat offenders, deJongh said that fighting crime effectively also includes improving the local justice system, both by streamlining the efforts of prosecutors and pushing judges to exact "swift and fair" justice.
"In our courts we need consistency in bail hearings and bail restrictions," the governor said. "And we need fairness and consistency — and predictability — in sentencing. Only with this will we find that our mandatory minimum sentences, especially those involving guns, will be implemented and will provide the deterrence and the protection we look to these laws to provide."
The Governor on the Territory’s Debts
On Monday deJongh noted that the government also has to work on settling its old debts — particularly the more than $1 billion unfunded liability plaguing the Government Employees’ Retirement System (GERS), along with the estimated $4 million in retroactive wages owed to government employees.
DeJongh said he is working on appointing members to a retroactive wage commission tasked with identifying how much each employee is owed, and will be using a portion of the projected increases in local rum revenues to secure a $600 million pension bond for GERS. The government’s bond counsel and underwriters are moving ahead with the development of a pension-funding program, and a bill will soon be submitted to the Legislature, the governor said.
Meanwhile, the government has to make sure everyone pays their fair share of taxes, he added. While officials begin correcting tax forms and streamlining the collection efforts, residents have to reconcile themselves to paying multiple years’ worth of property taxes once the government’s long-standing court case is resolved, deJongh said.
"Everyone knows that they will be due sooner or later, and as we seek to survive these next few years, no time is too soon," he said, reminding the audience that the territory isn’t out of crisis just yet, so everyone must still "stretch and dig a bit deeper" until the financial challenges have been resolved.
He also urged the community to set anything aside that would stymie the territory’s progress, such as pettiness, partisanship, ill will and self-interest.
"Every act of pettiness, of meanness, of nay-saying and of disrespect diminishes not just the actor, but the audience," the governor said. "We can and must rise above this.
"We cannot back into the future, but we must look forward boldly and with confidence. We must turn and face the future even as we carry with us the best of the past. We must not wallow in the past, in past wrongs or slights, or even past injustices. We must turn and face the future working every day to make it better."

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