{"id":29224,"date":"2015-09-28T23:56:42","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T23:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=29224"},"modified":"2015-09-29T00:00:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T00:00:02","slug":"banco-popular-loans-gvi-40-million-backed-by-anticipated-property-tax-payments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=29224","title":{"rendered":"Banco Popular Loans GVI $40 Million Backed By Anticipated Property Tax Payments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. THOMAS &#8212; The Government of the Virgin Islands (GVI) has made known through a press release issued earlier today that Puerto Rico&#8217;s Banco Popular has loaned it $40 million, which the GVI says it will repay once anticipated property tax payments are made.<\/p>\n<p>The government sought the loan from Banco Popular after senators of the 31st Legislature passed a measure\u00a0late July authorizing the action, which was later signed into law by Governor Kenneth Mapp.<\/p>\n<p>The RAN measure, <a href=\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Bill-No_-31-0147-RAN.pdf\">bill No.31-0147<\/a>, expanded a 2013 law that allows the government to borrow up to $40 million in each fiscal year, secured by anticipated tax revenues \u2014 a setup that helps allay issues relative to cash flow. The measure also increased the borrowing cap to $60 million while at the same time eliminating the requirement to pay back the loan within a 12-month period.<\/p>\n<p>According to Finance Commissioner\u00a0Valdamier O. Collens,\u00a0the funds will be used for working capital purposes and to cover the projected shortfalls in revenue collection during fiscal year 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Collens also thanked Banco Popular for being the purchaser of the RAN, adding that by this latest action, the bank continues to strengthen its longstanding relationship with the government.<\/p>\n<p>Bill No. 31-0147 is <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/politics\/senate-approves-borrowing-bills-as-government-reports-only-9-days-of-cash-on-hand\/\" target=\"_blank\">one of two measures<\/a><\/span> aimed at shoring up the government&#8217;s bottom line as it tries to stay afloat for the remaining fiscal year. At a protracted Senate session at the Early B. Ottley Legislative Hall in July, lawmakers fiercely debated whether the government should be borrowing money at a time when it was struggling to generate revenue. But others, including Senators Clifford Graham and Kurt Vialet, argued fervently in support of the measures, daring their colleagues to come up with others funding sources or face a financial crisis where &#8220;<span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/politics\/payless-paydays-looming-senators-pass-measure-billing-residents-twice-in-2015-for-property-taxes\/\" target=\"_blank\">payless paydays<\/a><\/span>&#8221; would be a normality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy colleague from St. Croix, the good former principal, is absolutely correct,\u201d Senator Clifford Graham, chairman of the powerful Committee on Finance, strongly stated &#8212; referring to Vialet. \u201cLadies and gentlement, the FY15 budget is supported by $50 million in property taxes.\u00a0The property tax bill is coming out in August; are we going to collect $50 million before the end of September? The answer is no.\u00a0So all the RAN does, is allow you to collect that $50 million in a loan to complete the fiscal year, and then when the\u00a0property tax bills are paid, it repays the RAN.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Graham was referring to RAN measure bill\u00a0No. 31-0148.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo you make up your mind. It\u2019s either you support the RAN, or you\u2019re going to have payless paydays; it\u2019s as simple as that.\u00a0There\u2019s no other way to add it up. The biggest cost of this government is payroll,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Feature Image:\u00a0Finance Commissioner\u00a0Valdamier O. Collens.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Image Credit: GVI.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ST. THOMAS &#8212; The Government of the Virgin Islands (GVI) has made known through a press release issued earlier today that Puerto Rico&#8217;s Banco Popular has loaned it $40 million, which the GVI says it will repay once anticipated property tax payments are made. The government sought the loan from Banco Popular after senators of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[228,3,11,854,191,2474,147],"tags":[813,2029,3400,1162],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Banco Popular Loans GVI $40 Million Backed By Anticipated Property Tax Payments - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ST. THOMAS -- RAN -- The Government of the Virgin Islands (GVI) has made known through a press release issued earlier today that Puerto Rico&#039;s Banco....\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=29224\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ernice Gilbert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=29224\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=29224\",\"name\":\"Banco Popular Loans GVI $40 Million Backed By Anticipated Property Tax Payments - V.I. 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I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Banco Popular Loans GVI $40 Million Backed By Anticipated Property Tax Payments - V.I. Consortium","description":"ST. THOMAS -- RAN -- The Government of the Virgin Islands (GVI) has made known through a press release issued earlier today that Puerto Rico's Banco....","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=29224","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ernice Gilbert","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=29224","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=29224","name":"Banco Popular Loans GVI $40 Million Backed By Anticipated Property Tax Payments - V.I. Consortium","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-09-28T23:56:42+00:00","dateModified":"2015-09-29T00:00:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51"},"description":"ST. 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