There was no Diageo Dirge!

Good Morning St. Croix!!

If you listen to all the white folks on talk radio, you would have thought the incumbent Senators were in trouble. To hear their rantings, voting against the Diageo Bill was tantamount to Treason against the people of the Virgin Islands and all of the incumbents should lose in the Democratic Primary. The Governor, who apparently listened to these rantings and was harboring resentment against the five Crucian Senators who challanged him, supported his own team so we had so called Diageo Democrats running against the DeJongh Democrats.

Now in the end, there was absolutely no impact from the Diageo Vote and only one incumbent lost. The real question is why there was little impact on St. Croix and is their a reason why eight St. Thomas Senators voted for the bill and five of Seven St. Croix Senators voted against it. For people to stay in office they have to vote with their constituency in a logical matter so it’s time to look at risks and rewards.

Now a 200 million dollar addition to the treasury is a lot of money and will have a huge impact. Since two-thirds of all government workers are located on St. Thomas and all the highest priced professional positions are on that island, about three quarters of all Wages paid by the government go to St. Thomas Residents. Now not only is there a direct benefit from using these revenues to increase the wages of all government workers, but it means three quarters of all retroactive and pensions will be paid on that island.

Now St. Croix has more land and a fair number of industrial workers so half of all taxes are generated on that island and half of all Government Bills are paid on that island. Since this was a $250 million Dollar Project, half of the Debt is $125 million.

Any of the eight St. Thomas Senators would be a fool to vote against receiving a 150 million dollar a year benefit to voters for an investment of $125 million.

Now on the other hand, the Crucian Senators would only be able to deliver about $50 million a year for a very risky investment of $125 million. Not only is their the cash risk, there is environment risk and also the gift of 70 acres of prime land. Perhaps the biggest risk comes from giving away $90 million a year to a foreign company which can be used to promote foreign rum in direct competition to Puerto Rico. If anything goes wrong it could hurt Cruzan rum which has been run by locals who have earned a living and supported the government for 75 years. The safest route is to protect you own and vote against Diageo.

The two Crucian Senators that just didn’t fit were of course Jimmi Webber and Norman Jn. Baptiste. Lord knows what possessed Webber to vote for the bill. It’s not like the 7% white voters in St. Croix really matter in an election.

Now Jn. Baptiste is a lot easier to understand. He has voted for any project involving jobs wether it’s one or 100. While this project is for only 30 jobs, he was promised a 34 million dollar boondogle to build a silly little fish pond. Of course the St. Thomas Senators took the vote and reniged on the $34 million.

Oh well, that’s just politics VI style.