{"id":48798,"date":"2017-02-03T11:13:40","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T11:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=48798"},"modified":"2017-02-03T11:13:40","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T11:13:40","slug":"mapp-administration-search-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=48798","title":{"rendered":"In Mapp Administration, A Search For Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. CROIX — During a press conference held on January 13 at Government House here, Governor Kenneth Mapp spoke in blunt terms about the state of the territory, and the urgency to pass his sin tax measure if the territory were to avert a financial crisis.<\/p>\n

The governor’s own words:<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u201cA rejection of the identification of new and immediate revenues to the territory, particularly to satisfy the financial markets that we\u2019re moving out of structural deficits, would be a decision equal to saying that we would be cutting 11 to 14 percent of the budget for the Government of the Virgin Islands,\u201d the governor said in a response to a question posed by a Consortium reporter. \u201cThat $110 million removal from the current budget of $787 million, I am not prepared to stand before the community and say this is exactly what that means, but I do not believe that there could be any person in this territory that believes that the removal of $110 million from the operating budget of the Government of the Virgin Islands, would not be an action that is painless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor went even further during the same press conference, stating that refusal to pass the measure or failure to replace it with something comparable would mean, \u201cthe curtailing of hours, it would mean\u00a0furloughing employees, it would mean cutting services, in some areas completely to a halt \u2014 it would mean closing offices of the Government of the Virgin Islands in some areas. It would be a drastic impact to the operations of the Government of the Virgin Islands,\u201d Mr. Mapp said.<\/p>\n