Dec. 19, 2007 — In a sharply worded statement, Shelley Moorhead, the president of the African-Caribbean Reparations Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA) has called Gov. John deJongh Jr. to task for not releasing funds appropriated to finance a January trip to Denmark.
The government says the money just isn't there to release.
Moorhead founded ACRRA in September of 2004 with the goal of seeking reparations from Denmark for the nearly two centuries of colonial, slavery and post-slavery injustices done to the residents of the Danish West Indies. The name is a homonym of Accra, the capital of Ghana, an African nation from which many Caribbean people's ancestors came.
(See "Resolution Supports Danish Reparations".)
In 2005, ACRRA and the Danish Institute for Human Rights signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide the framework to begin the process of addressing the effects of the Danish slave trade and colonization in the Caribbean. A second delegation is scheduled to go to Denmark Jan. 12-18. The Legislature appropriated about $35,000 for ACRRA's various programs for the 2007-8 fiscal year and deJongh signed it.
"Without having immediate access to that funding, a number of our programs are threatened," Moorhead told the Source Monday in a telephone interview. "We have the governor making a public pledge and promise to support those who want to go to Denmark. That statement was made in September. It is the delay in the governor's support that really threatens the delegation's basis. Here we are less than a month away and we just don't have any sort of idea where the governor is with this right now."
Government spokesman Jean Greaux Jr. said Monday that deJongh supports ACRRA's goal, but until or unless the Legislature passes the governor's property tax proposal, the government will be squeezed by having more money appropriated than it has to spend in its coffers.
"Funding has not been released because of the uncertainty regarding the property tax," Greaux said. "The legislature still has not passed the governor's proposal. (See "Governor's Team Makes Case for New Property-Tax Rate Structure".)
Revenues have been restricted so naturally there has been a general slowdown on the release of funds.
"The government has only been authorizing money for charitable and humane services, but not for non-profit organizations. So we are looking carefully at the miscellaneous budget and only authorizing expenditures on a case by case basis, for care to the homeless and emergency humanitarian needs. Several other non-profit organizations have been told the same."
When asked about the government's claims of a revenue shortfall, Moorhead was dismissive.
"They said earlier in the year there was a surplus," Moorhead said. "They can find funding when they want to. Is this emblematic of how the government view's the initiative? Is this indicative of the governor's 'Together We Can' slogan? What message exactly are we trying to send to the people of the Virgin Islands?"
Asked what it would take for OMB to release the funding for ACRRA, Greaux said, "Anything that would increase overall revenues." He said that without the property tax bill, there was a revenue shortfall of $10 million, and other legislative actions were exacerbating the problem. (See "Latest Appropriations Raise General Fund Budget Another $10 Million".)
"The Legislature overrode the governor's veto on the ferry subsidies, so now we are $11 million behind the eight ball.… Unfortunately, ACRRA funding was contained in that unfunded miscellaneous appropriation," Greaux said.
Back Talk
Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name and city and state/country or island where you reside.
