Story Series

The V.I. Department of Education has completed work on important projects in recent months, with several more projects critical to the quality of the school environment expected to be completed by June.

With what I consider a crisis at WAPA, I am sure the issue of privatization will once again be on the table. It is probably under the table already! It's an option for the territory to consider before the islands are hit by a rolling blackout.

The Virgin Islands Port Authority (VIPA) is progressing with the permanent repairs of its 119 facilities damaged during the hurricanes of September 2017.

The USVI faces a host of economic problems made significantly worse by the impact of two hurricanes. Highlighting the facts is not just wallowing in doom and gloom, but an important part of facing them and making wise decisions.

If the V.I. government and Congress do not step up and take difficult, serious steps quickly, the unfilled budget shortfalls will play out painfully and chaotically.

Early in 2017, the U.S. Virgin Islands was facing massive structural deficits, fast-rising debt, multiple ratings downgrades, an inability to borrow and no clear path to solvency. Hurricanes Irma and Maria have made the situation dramatically worse.

With the U.S. Virgin Islands caught in a straitjacket of a budget crisis, there are things the U.S. Congress could do to help, starting with the funds the territory receives for rum production.

Congress could do several things which would quickly eliminate the territory's budgetary problems.

One potential revenue source for helping the government dig out from under its budget crisis is already here and ubiquitous – Cannabis. While opposition remains, the tide of public opinion is swinging towards legalization.

As the territory struggles with its budget crisis, Gov. Kenneth Mapp and members of the Legislature have talked about possibly consolidating some government agencies to save money by cutting administrative costs or operating more efficiently. Sometimes making government functions more rational means consolidating duplicate agencies or folding small agencies into...

The largest single department in the V.I. budget is Education, which means it's also got the biggest, most complicated budget. That makes searching for budget savings a daunting task.

Many government departments have been plagued with excess overtime, persisting over many years. More than one audit has found a chronic lack of documentation to prove the overtime work actually happened.

The V.I. Legislature is better funded and far more active than most state legislatures. It may be too active, churning out new legislation that does little, and periodically getting embroiled in the internal management of different agencies.

Most large government agencies are starved for funds, not overfunded. But if we look closer, there may be room for surgical cuts that can move the deficit in the right direction and set an example by leading from the top.

In recent years the V.I. government has changed the laws to expand slot machine gambling, first to try to build hotels in the 1990s, then to help an existing hotel and in hopes of revitalizing horse racing.

Tax breaks granted by the RTPark have reduced corporate taxes paid to the V.I. government, but evidence that they have created significant numbers of new jobs or a thriving tech industry – the program's ostensible purpose – is in short supply.

A big new rum distillery on St. Croix was supposed to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue. What happened? Wasn't that supposed to save us?

The V.I. government is at a crossroads, facing budget deficits, growing debt and an inability to borrow. Is the problem the growing debt or is it spending that leads to deficits that expand the debt?

The V.I. Government Employee Retirement System is heading toward insolvency. There are no good options left to prevent this from happening. It will sell all its assets and be unable to make full monthly pension payments by 2025 at the latest.