“Teflon John” Punts On 2012 Budget; Lets Senate Take The Blame For Hundreds Of Terminations
Gov. "Teflon John" P. deJongh, Jr.
Just call him “Teflon John.”
Those damn Senators sent Governor deJongh a budget he is refusing to sign, and now, gosh darn it, he’s going to have to send hundreds of people home.
Like that’s not what he was going to do anyway.
But hey, they left him no choice – at least that what he tried to tell us in a Friday evening recorded statement.
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In that petulant child voice we’ve come to know, he explained his options – pass, veto or not sign (which he has never done before) – and all the problems with those choices.
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Ok, so a veto is off the table. And so how do you feel about approving it?
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You’re right Governor. After all this time it would be a shame to tarnish the spotless reputation of your Administration with a bad financial decision about the Territory’s funds.
So what’s a fellow to do? They wouldn’t give him is full gross receipts tax increase or sign off on nine unpaid holidays. So he’s going to do the only thing he can, poor dear.
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So there.
He admonished the Senators for their prior actions, including the unfunded retirement incentive plan and the 8% pay cut – both of which he signed into law. And then, with a flash of that brilliant selective memory he often displays, he chastised them for looking for a “future fix” to the Territory’s financial woes.
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This from the guy who brought you the Diageo deal - which has already cost more than $100 million in lost rum cover over revenue – and that’s in addition to the $250 million they paid Diageo to come here in the first place. But we digress.
Well, he says, he’s not going to get caught in this trap.
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So fix it he will. With 70% of the budget allocated to salaries and other personnel costs, he has no other choice.
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And even though he’s tried really hard to avoid this, he doesn’t have any other choice because the Senators just can’t seem to make the tough decisions.
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But those shifty Senators will pay, and don’t you forget it.
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What a charade. To continue to spout this mantra about no other way to cut, when countless alternatives have been floated over the past months; to go on about the Legislature’s failure to produce any revenue producing measures, when property taxes have gone uncollected for the past four years; to criticize anyone for relying on future revenues to fix current financial problems, when the rum deals are bleeding us dry; or to shirk all responsibility and try to walk away with clean hands by letting this budget pass by default?
If there was a primer for irresponsible leadership, this would be the opening chapter.
And we include the Senators in this as well – that august body who in the past few months has promised a retirement incentive that not only could it not fund, but served no other purpose than to further cripple a retirement system that’s already $1.6 billion in the hole in unfunded liability – a hole that will get deeper now that even more have retired early and contributions will be reduced by the 8% pay cut.
But they thought we could afford to make pension payments to Governor’s widows? (what ever happened with that anyway?)
And let’s not be short-sighted. Just last year, a half-billion dollars was borrowed supposedly to avoid the deficits in FY 2011 and 2012. And election rhetoric aside we must ask – where did all that money go?
Not to the roads. Not to the schools. Not to meanigful research into alternative energy sources. Not even to pay the Government’s millons in unpaid obligations to WAPA, vendors and contractors.
Some have suggested at at the heart of this latest tantrum is no more than misplaced retaliation against still unconfirmed activities in Washington this week concerning the funding of the Virgin Islands Next Generation Network and its Broadband initiative. Again, aside from the glaring infrastructure deficiencies that made it a pipe dream in the first place, why, with this ongoing crisis, was there ever any pressure from Government House to float another $38 million in local bonds to fund it?
The answer is simple – the potential for self-enhancement was great for those who were on the inside; as they were in the Diageo deal; as they would have been in the Alpine deal – and the now indignant Governor was the lynchpin in them all.
We are in a very bad place. This week’s raid at the Legislature should be indicative to those who are familiar with Federal operations that things will only get worse because by the time you see them, investigations are well down the road.
And the responses of Sen. President Russell, who somehow thinks the Feds owed him prior warning that they were coming – and the ramblings of Sen. White, who doesn’t seem to understand the crucial importance of the fact that the Legislatures servers were confiscated, illustrate how mired in their own delusion our elected officials have become. Sen. Williams and his fake degree are crumbs on their path.
So don’t think that by taking this non-action you remove yourself from this fiasco, dear John. There’s plenty of responsibility to go around, and you bear your share of it whether you sign this budget or not.
And Senators, hide that audit as long as you want – it’s much too late to avoid the outcomes.
We need to live in Medieval times – then they could all be drawn and quartered in the public square and we could get on with our lives.
“Wronful?” Is this for real? Reading all of this has given me a headache.
CRUCIAN TO THE BONE: @ Don’t cry take action,I think is time you grow up and stop checking for people spelling,like Paul or not, is not going to help solve our problems,it’s time you stop acting like a proper jack a$$
I am already taking action. It is my opinion if you want to blog and sound intelligent at best your blogs should be intelligent without typos. If you have a problem with that you deal with it. I monitor this site, this is where I get my information and I comment from time to time, like I said if you can’t take the heat stay out of the fire, blog at your own risk!!
anon i have no problem in telling you my opinion about william and punch but to be polite why dont you answer my question first? ive been asking it for months and you side step it so if you want to ask foran answer then lets make it a two sided relationship, you know the kind where asking a question dosnt get you called names or accused of untruths. 8o) have a nice day
CRUCIAN TO THE BONE:@ Don’t cry take action, you don’t have to be intelligent to take action and be part of the solution,we are all facing the same problems this goverment has brought upon our people,been intelligent or been dumb doesn’t separate us as a people,my vote is just as good as your vote,together we stand or together we fall (ONE BIG CRUCIAN HUG-UP)
oh by th way the following symptoms of dyslecia
Vision, Reading, and Spelling
Complains of dizziness, headaches or stomach aches while reading.
Confused by letters, numbers, words, sequences, or verbal explanations.
Reading or writing shows repetitions, additions, transpositions, omissions, substitutions, and reversals in letters, numbers and/or words.
Complains of feeling or seeing non-existent movement while reading, writing, or copying.
Seems to have difficulty with vision, yet eye exams don’t reveal a problem.
Extremely keen sighted and observant, or lacks depth perception and peripheral vision.
Reads and rereads with little comprehension.
Spells phonetically and inconsistently.
this is just for those of you who are so quick to judge
Read more: http://www.dyslexia.com/library/symptoms.htm#ixzz1aZYPM9V7
Thanks for saying that Crucian/ Bone. It’s so to the point. We need everybody to participate for change. I still say that if all the grammar teachers blogging here on CIF would put their energy into organizing people, not dividing, we could begin to witness unity.
Stuck…
Still stuck…anyone else?
Bring it, John. You would have fired us long ago if you could have, you pathological liar. Senators, please call his bluff indeed. Tell him to fire whomever he wants. You will see that he won’t.
Paul, the symptoms you describe can also be attributed to public drunkeness.
@ 5.03
That better describes Paul.
from east end to Golden Grove .. all we wa is JOHN
lol the anon phenomina insults instead of debate. you wont name a canadate, you dont take any action to better our island you wine and complaine, everyones a drunk , wolverine, a suporter of dejoung, i would bet thatyou have a goverment job, probbaly in midle management or below where you are completly powerless and so you spew your message of discontent wth no goal to change anything. you flaunt your ideas with out realiseing that its impossible to take any constructive action to better the island with them.
so I undertand why you are so quick to insult me, you lack the capasity to make a positive plan of action, you are unteachable , and you have tunnel vision. its your inability to look behond crying there is a problem, you act like children who have told the teacher someone broke the rules. grow up