Bill to Use Debt Owed by GVI in Lieu of Property Taxes Criticized for Only Aiding Gov't Employees; Measure Also Rejected by Tax Collector
The Tax Collector in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor has firmly rejected Senate President Milton Potter’s proposal to offset a property owner’s property tax liability against any amount of retroactive payments that the Government of the Virgin Islands owes to the property owner.
2025-04-16 20:41:14 - VI News Staff
On Tuesday, Senator Potter introduced Bill 36- 0008 before the Committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance. “This is an opportunity for the Government of the Virgin Islands to reduce its obligations, while giving property owners an opportunity to make good on their property tax obligation,” he declared. “I think it’s a win-win.”
After listening to feedback from the Tax Collector and other members of the government’s financial team, Potter said he amended his draft bill to address “far-reaching concerns.” The bill will now only benefit government employees owed retroactive payments going back several decades. Additionally, so as to “not incentivize property owners to just not pay their taxes,” according to Mr. Potter, the bill is only relevant to property tax obligations from 2020 or before.
Bill 36-0008 “allows the property owners to live in a level of dignity to satisfy their property tax obligations, while reducing the government's liability that is on the books,” Potter argued. His proposal is a “creative way” to make a dent in owed retroactive payments exceeding $100 million, he insisted.
Despite the adjustments to the language of the bill— which were not made available to Tax Collector Brent Leerdam until later in the meeting— the LGO found the measure difficult to support. “This bill implies that actual money or revenue would not be coming into the coffers of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and, by extension, the Government of the Virgin Islands,” Mr. Leerdam pointed out. Further, he contended that “the offset allowed under this bill does not directly address the issue facing this government in the administration of its fiscal responsibilities.” According to Mr. Leerdam, the real challenge to the government's ability to pay its debts is a “shortfall in overall revenue collection,” partially attributed to “inflation and the rise in cost of living.”
“We believe that the focus at this time should remain on the enhancement of revenue collections,” argued Mr. Leerdam. He told lawmakers that the offset allowed under Bill 36-0008 would instead have the opposite effect. It would “reduce LGO’s projected and highly anticipated revenue received from the collection of real property taxes…The government's heavy reliance on these projections in the administration of its fiscal obligations would also be adversely affected.”