The V.I. Legislature approved new tax incentives for renovating in historic areas, a major reform of net metering, and passed a slew of other legislation – as well as banning selling alternative tobacco products to minors – in a busy session Thursday.
All the measures now go to Gov. John deJongh Jr.’s desk for his signature, veto or line-item veto.
Businesses that spend money to renovate blighted properties on Savanne-Down Street and Garden Up-Street on St. Thomas – and in Frederiksted and Christiansted on St. Croix – will be eligible for a series of "Commercial Zone" tax breaks if a bill sponsored by Sen. Janette Millin Young is signed into law. The goal of the bill is to find ways to encourage property owners to fix them up, ameliorating blight and making the islands more attractive, Millin Young has said.
An amendment from Sen. Nereida “Nellie” Rivera-O’Reilly expanded eligibility for the tax breaks to include not only actual V.I. residents but also people who attended school here, graduated from the University of the Virgin Islands or a V.I. high school, and are registered to vote in the territory.
Many of the derelict properties belong to people from the U.S. Virgin Islands who no longer live here, and so would have been ineligible for the breaks, O’Reilly said. “Legal counsel has noted there may be some legal issue with defining residency the way we have,” O’Reilly said, before asking senators to support the measure anyway and then work out any issues that arise later.
Sen. Clifford Graham offered an amendment to grant additional, “stackable” tax breaks of 5 to 15 percent to those who develop parking, entertainment, restaurants or new residential development in the four aforementioned zones. These incentives are aimed at encouraging a greater diversity of types of businesses in these areas and to encourage the creation of more parking, Graham said.
Legislation from Sen. Craig Barshinger would allow household-sized solar and wind power producers to continue net-metering excess power to the Water and Power Authority at retail price, but limiting larger producers to a smaller "Feed In Tariff" payment reflecting WAPA’s costs.
The bill leaves full retail-rate net metering for producers of up to 5 KW of solar power. Systems of 5kw to 500kw would not get retail net metering, but instead a tariff set by PSC that pays producers less to account for WAPA’s avoided cost. Larger systems would be considered utility-level production and priced contractually as they arise.
Net metering was capped at 15 MW territorywide in 2009, with a 10 MW cap on St. Thomas and a 5 MW cap on St. Croix. A year ago, the growth of net metering was making news but reaching the caps was still distant. Since then, St. Croix has either connected or contracted to connect about 4.1 megawatts of the five available. St. Thomas still has plenty of room.
Another bill from Barshinger that the Legislature approved Thursday would waive excise taxes on materials brought in for alternative power production and waive gross receipts taxes on income derived from net metering or the aforementioned Feed In Tariff.
Legislation sponsored by Sen. Sammuel Sanes, along with cosponsors Sens. Diane Capehart and Kenneth Gittens, prohibits selling electronic nicotine vaporizers as well as chewing tobacco, snuff and other consumable tobacco products to minors. [Bill 30-0268]
A bill sponsored by Sens. Tregenza Roach and Alicia "Chucky" Hansen devotes whatever funds from captive insurance remain – "after all administrative expenses and documented expenses" – be split between the two hospitals. [Bill 30-0316]
While the amount of money this might generate is not yet clear, it will create a dedicated revenue stream for the hospitals that they urgently need, Roach said.
Another bill sponsored by Barshinger and Sanes that was approved Thursday would assign health insurance payments directly to the provider. [30-0253] An amendment from Sanes added an emergency appropriation of $100,000 for Sea View Nursing Home on St. Thomas.
Sanes said the facility needs the money urgently to come into compliance with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid requirements. Without it, the facility may be forced to stop collecting Medicare reimbursements.
Other legislation approved Thursday would:
– entitle parents and guardians with students enrolled in private, public or parochial schools to a maximum of two hours off from their jobs each month, without loss of pay, in order to visit their children, teachers, counselors or other school-related official, sponsored by Sens. Myron Jackson and Clarence Payne [Bill 30-0174];
– establish that the Department of Education must incorporate bully prevention and gang resistance education and training in all grades, sponsored by Millin Young, Buckley, Sanes, Jackson and Sens. Diane Capehart and Shawn-Michael Malone [30-0013];
– increase the portion of property taxes set aside for streetlights from 4 percent to 6 percent, from O’Reilly. [Bill 30-0196]
– place a provision in the Farmers Market Technology Improvement Program so farmers could accept electronic benefits transfer cards from SNAP recipients to pay for vegetables, fruit, meat, fish and dairy products, sponsored by Payne and Millin Young. [Bill 30-0295]
– task the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency with setting up a system of call boxes located in relatively high traffic areas where they might be needed. Sponsored by Gittens, it would be funded by $50,000 from the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund. [Bill 30-0163]
– require health insurance providers to cover treatment for autism spectrum disorders, from O’Reilly. [Bill 30-0202] An amendment from Payne requires coverage for hearing aids too.
– require an assessment of cadastral and land records housed in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, from Jackson. [Bill No. 30-0023];
– rename the Government Development Bank as the Economic Development Bank and merge the Government Development Bank and the Small Business Development Agency, from Malone. [Bill 30-0302]
– put uniform language into the local law governing certifying public accountants, from Malone and Millin Young. [Bill No. 30-0279]
– create a framework for pharmacists to deliver vaccinations. [Bill 30-0204]
– bring V.I. public accountancy laws into compliance with the provisions recommended by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy in conjunction with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Virgin Islands Board of Public Accountancy.
– allow members of the Nurse Licensure Board to continue serving after their terms expire.
– and clarifying and expanding the definition of e-commerce to include almost any online business, in order to aid the territory’s Research and Technology Park to give more companies tax breaks when they set up V.I. offices.
