Guest Opinion: Diageo Partnership
Guest Opinion by Dwane A. Callwood
I am amazed at how quickly we seem to forget here in the Virgin Islands. I am very concerned that the Governor is calling the Senate into Special Session to consider more borrowing to keep the territory afloat. I concede we are in tough economic times. However, I believe that borrowing should be our last resort. As such, other avenues should be pursued before we turn to more debt. Wasn’t it just a year ago that the current governor presented the Diageo catastrophe?
Hasn’t the Governor consistently refer to the contractual agreement between Diageo, Plc and the Government of the US Virgin Islands as a “partnership”?
Didn’t he aggressively take to the airwaves and talk shows to promote this “partnership” and all that our new “partners” would bring to the territory? Didn’t administration continually toss about the figure of $3 Billion in the form of “an average of $100 Million per year for 30 years into the VI treasury” thanks to the new “partnership”?
On June 26, 2009 Ryan Donmyer reported on Bloomberg.com that as a result of the contractual agreement between the VI Government and Diageo, our new partner an additional $2.7 Billion dollars in tax incentives (outside of the agreement). Governor DeJongh indicated that he had no idea his deal would help make the world’s largest liquor distiller the most unlikely beneficiary of the emergency Troubled Asset Relief Program approved by Congress just four months later.
Before proceeding to the bond market, would it not make sense to ask our new “partners” to perhaps give us an interest-free cash advance of $100 Million annually for the next five years and charge it against our share of the leftover “cover-over” revenues in years 26 thru 30 of our agreement? That’s not an unreasonable request for us to make. We are going to build them a taxpayer funded state-of-the-art rum producing facility that they will own outright, once construction is complete, and we’re even buying the molasses to be used in that facility. The contractual agreement has gone from lopsided to totally one-sided. According to the Governor, we are partners. Partners look out for each other. Don’t they?
Dwane A. Callwood
July 8, 2009
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WHAT A SHAME!!!
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/british-rum-maker-got-27-billion-payo
NOTE THE NAME OF THE WEBSITE!
I have heard the Governor deJONGH is not really a Democrat , but a REPUBLICAN , a friend from stt told me that .
He is a DEMOCRAT and I love it!
Wow!!! What a website, BEAT! I especially took note of the description of the sleight-of-hand tactic. “They sneak things into a bill that is focused on other things.” Sen.Dowe has learned well.
This article is about 2.7 billion impacting the whole USA. When our “leaders” talk about millions here in the VI, the effect on us is staggaring. No wonder we, who count in hundreds and thousands, are so insignificant to them.
CIF please consider removing some of “crucian4life”‘s comments, especially the ones that repeat on every section. They make it hard to keep up with the serious messages when they are overwhelmed with these increasingly offensive attacks.
Casinos: Weapons of Cash Destruction.
Haven’t you noticed that ever since our casino opened there’s been a sickening decline in business elsewhere?
Christiansted is, for all intents, dead. Frederiksted, well, my beloved Frederiksted, will always be on the fringe. Maybe it’s time for another Fireburn.
Sunny Isle? A hodge-podge gathering of desperate merchants hawking shoddy trinkets. I make the sign of the cross before I shop there.