Even as stimulus program dollars are paying for long-needed
repair work on Gifft Hill and South Shore road, there are more coming.
Gov. John de Jongh said multi-billion dollar appropriations
bill just passed by Congress is worth $33 million for Virgin islands projects.
The Inquiring Iguana is pretty focused on St. John and scoured the legislation for what it means directly for the island.
- $200,000 for the acquisition of a refurbished passenger ferry for St. John
- $3.25 million for acquisition of land at Maho Bay and Hawksnest Bay for the National Park.
Other provisions in the bill provide for some new buses for Vitran and a new 911 emergency communications center.
The Governor said he is "enormously grateful."
Do you know what land at Maho Bay is being acquired as part of this spending package?
What land at Hawksnest Bay is being acquired?
More Park Land = Economic Stimulus?!?!
Adding park land doesn’t mean anything to the economy. PAYING someone for that land to add to the park, puts that money directly into the economy. So it really does make sense. The fact that it increases the amount of land on St. John protected under National Park status is just a bonus.
It’s nice to add land to the park, but all it does is transfer money from the taxpayers on the main land to a land owner on St John who may take the money and run. A portion of the proceeds yields taxes to the VI government but the Feds are 50% efficient at best and the VI govt even less. So what is the real cost to benefit ratio after it’s all said and done?
Nobody said anything about this being stimulus money, because it isn’t. So the formula isn’t the same, and to justify this spending you just need to believe adding land to the park is worth doing.