Virgin Islands government department heads, central government officials and lawmakers met Friday for the 2025 Spring Revenue Estimating Conference on St. Thomas.
“You know, I often think revenue conferences are great,” Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said during introductory remarks. “But I think what we should have is an expenses conference because the revenues really aren’t a problem. Revenues are great. It’s the expenses that are really the problem.”
Bryan lauded the government’s annual exercise — which is required by the Virgin Islands Code to happen twice per year in September and March — and said revenues have been positive during his tenure as governor. Bryan called for a “true estimate” of what it costs to run the territory’s government.
“I say that because every year we discount the retro pay that we owe, we discount the underfunded waste management costs, we discount the underfunded hospitals cost,” he said. “We have a rising matching priority in terms of the Medicaid that we get — coming up with that money — we’re running out of the money faster. We’re giving more services. We discount the cost of VITRAN — the real cost — we kind of like, sweep it under the rug. The real cost of policing — because every year we have $10, $15, $20 million in overtime that … it doesn’t really go away. We dip a lot, it can be controlled, but it will never be eliminated.”
He went on to highlight costs of operating the V.I. Waste Management Authority’s garbage collection efforts and said the Virgin Islands government has made a “tremendous effort” to make sure residents haven’t suffered from the effects of inflation.
Tax collections for the U.S. Virgin Islands’ General Fund in recent years peaked in fiscal year 2022 at more than $268.5 million. That number dipped to approximately $253 million in 2023 and ticked up to nearly $255 million in 2024. Special funds collections peaked in 2024 at nearly $66.4 million. Corporate income tax revenues also peaked in 2022 at more than $109 million. The territory took in slightly more than $65 million in fiscal year 2024.
V.I. Management and Budget Director Julio Rhymer Sr. called fiscal years 2025 and 2026 revenues estimates of $424.5 million and $414.1 million, respectively, cautiously conservative based on current economic trends and turbulence within the federal government.
Toward the end of the conference, Sen. Novelle Francis Jr., who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, asked Rhymer to elaborate on possible austerity measures moving forward. Rhymer said the government is looking at fixed costs first and then looking at contracts and leases to determine if they can “do some consolidation going forward, which should actually save money.”
“We’re also looking at the cost of fleets and how do we maintain that fleet going forward,” he said. “But those are things that we’re looking at up front so we can actually understand the things we need to start saving on. There’s lots of things we really need to look — and do a hard look at — and the first ones are the big items like fixed costs and rentals and leases and contract costs, and how we can actually consolidate those going forward.”
Bryan added that he disliked the word “austerity.”
“Because it’s not really what we need to do,” he said. “There’s no indicator here that say that we’re making less money — the problem is, everything’s getting more expensive. And nobody likes to say it, but thanks to the Legislature and the administration, the most prevailing cost in government is salaries and personnel and fringe [benefits].”
Bryan listed out the associated costs and asked how the government could do more with fewer employees who are better paid.
“Between fringe and employees, we got what — half a billion dollars,” he said. “And that’s the real carrying cost and nobody — and even though we’re having problems paying vendors, unions are still showing up and saying they want more money. They don’t realize that we have given them a lot more money in the last six years than ever before.”
Bryan said the administration had to work with the Legislature to figure out how “to do less, because it’s going to keep getting more expensive for government workers and for everybody in the territory.”
“We’re going to have to pay them, and we’re not going to be able to afford to pay them,” he said.
