CHARLOTTE AMALIE — The territory’s leaders have slapped more cash bandages on the gaping wound that is the V.I. Water and Power Authority’s finances, and senators said at an emergency session Thursday that the energy crisis is far from over.
“Accessible, quality healthcare, reliable water and power, a sanitary environment — those are not just nice things to have,” Senator Milton Potter said. “They are in fact, in my opinion, more related to human rights.”
Senators voted unanimously to approve three bills intended to help stave off more rolling blackouts, which have plagued the territory after Aggreko shut down generators on St. Croix for nonpayment by WAPA, and a lack of fuel caused less severe outages on St. Thomas.
Even after Governor Albert Bryan intervened and promised $2.3 million to get the Aggreko generators running again, maintenance issues sent St. Croix into another round of rolling blackouts, which ended Wednesday.
Senators convened Thursday afternoon and spent hours caucusing out of view of the public. They ultimately special ordered three bills to the floor, and voted unanimously to approve them.
The measures are Bill No. 35-0266, which re-appropriates funds to pay for current year obligations of Schneider Hospital, Luis Hospital, and the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority.
The bill also authorizes WAPA to issue a credit to the hospitals and Waste Management in lieu of payment to the V.I. government.
Senator Ray Fonseca explained that Luis Hospital will get a $2,026,000 credit, and Schneider will receive a $3,617,000 credit.
“In addition to that they’re now going to be charging the Department of Health $263,000,” to help cover utility costs for space the Health Department uses at Schneider Hospital, Fonseca said.
Neither Fonseca, a former member of the Department of Health’s executive staff, nor others at Thursday’s hearing acknowledged how Health essentially became a tenant in a building it used to own. In the early 1990s, the territory’s hospitals were part of the V.I. Department of Health, but was deemed too large. The late Senator Lorraine Berry, introduced legislation that would set the hospitals as a single authority, and thereby splitting them from Health. While DOH on St. Croix has its own headquarters, the its main offices on St. Thomas were relegated to the hospital’s fifth floor on St. Thomas. The last health commissioner to oversee the DOH and the territory’s hospitals as one unit was Dr. Natalie George in the then Schneider-Mapp administration.
The Waste Management will receive a credit of $619,701.
“We’ve got to continue to help WAPA to be able to pay these bills so that they can improve the services,” Fonseca said.
Even with the measures passed, WAPA still owes Seven Seas $7 million for water production, “they still need to replace the generation on St. Croix, it’s about $20 million to do that,” there’s “$20 million to convert Unit 27 to propane,” and $2 million in deferred maintenance, plus the outstanding $100 million obligation to Vitol.
“At any day, Vitol can take punitive measures because WAPA has been declared in default,” Fonseca said.
At-Large Senator Angel Bolques objected to a section of the bill that reduces funding to the Board of Education from $100,000 to $10,000 to fund the Maritime Industry Educational Scholarship, and urged Bryan to veto that section.
Senator Donna Frett-Gregory said that when it passed through committee into Rules, “it was amended for the $100,000. The scholarship amount for that particular measure is $10,000 per year, so there is no need for us to appropriate $100,000 in this fiscal year for that particular measure. Particularly in a time when we are fully aware of the challenges that we have in our cashflow.”
Frett-Gregory said senators also need to be realistic about their actions.
“Do the bills that we have before us resolve the issues that we have with timely payments to the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority? The answer is ‘No.’ Do the bills that we have before us address the concerns with our failing utility system? The answer is ‘No,’” Frett-Gregory said. “The work that we are doing today should not end here.”
The second measure was Bill No. 35-0267, authorizing the Virgin Islands government to use the Budget Stabilization Fund, also known as the “rainy day” fund, to pay current WAPA obligations in fiscal year 2024, but provides mechanisms to replenish the fund after it is depleted.
“Some agencies don’t even pay their bills on time when funds are available,” said Senator Diane Capehart. “The numbers do not lie. Clearly we are in a crisis, but this one will take a collaborative effort, and using the rainy day fund is not an option without a plan to replenish it.”
“No more rolling blackouts, it is time for us to get on top of things,” said Senator Kenneth Gittens.
The third measure was Bill No. 35-0268, which revises the procedure for authorizing a state of emergency by the governor, and requires a two-third vote by the Legislature, according to Sen. Alma Francis Heyliger.
Senate President Novelle Francis thanked WAPA employees for “putting their life at risk, braving the rain and everything else,” to keep the power system running.
WAPA’s fiscal situation is bleak, and “we have to subsidize WAPA. It’s clear and simple, the government has to subsidize WAPA,” Francis said.
Customers continue to leave the grid in favor of solar systems, and operating costs, “continue to mount,” he said.
Long-term plans for solar farms and wind turbines will help reign in costs, but other government vendors haven’t been paid, and “we owe them over $80 million,” and seniors have not received promised retroactive pay. “All of these people are asking and depending on us to make them whole.”
Francis celebrated an announcement by Government House Thursday that $5 million in income tax refunds have gone out, but said there is more to do.
WAPA remains in a “high-risk state, so at some point they’ll be back here knocking on our doors,” Francis said.
Three senators were absent from Thursday night’s vote — Senators Marise James, Javan James Sr., and Carla Joseph.
Beat reporters requested copies of the bills, but they had not yet been made public as of Thursday night.
By SUZANNE CARLSON/V.I. Daily News