Tag: GERS

With a budget shortfall of $150 million for this fiscal year, which runs through September, Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. urged residents to brace for the “financial tsunami.”

The Government Employees Retirement System trustees heard a plan to save the failing pension system, but it will take 20 years and see present retirees’ monthly checks cut by 44 percent.

The dispute over unpaid funds owed by the U.S. Virgin Islands government to the Government Employees Retirement System is bound for federal appellate court.

More than $3.3 million in spending by the Board of Education came under question in a newly released report from the Virgin Islands Office of the Inspector General. The audit report containing details made headlines late last year.

“Insolvency Is Not An Option” is the title of town hall meetings the Government Employees Retirement System will host next week. Government Retirees United for Fairness has found an idea and asked the GERS board to fund its effort to make it happen.

The Senate Committee on Government Operations, Consumer Affairs, Energy, Environment and Planning OK’d a bill Thursday that would require board members of the Government Employees Retirement System to have greater financial expertise.

Though no testifiers were present at the Senate Rules and Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, their submitted testimonies found Bill No. 33-0216 “too harsh” in terms of punishment for government employees who are convicted of certain felony offenses. The committee decided to hold the bill for further amendments and discussion.

Government employees resigning and taking out what they have in the Government Employees Retirement System will accelerate the system’s free fall to bankruptcy.

Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. has unveiled legislation broadening the territory's new medical cannabis law, with new taxes directed mostly to the failing Government Employees Retirement System, as well as new rights for Rastafarians and other changes.

Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. and his senior staff met Monday with the Government Employees Retirement System's Board of Trustees, GERS Administrator Austin Nibbs and Virgin Islands legislators to discuss solutions to the unfunded liability of the pension system.