Government

V.I. Lottery to Pay GERS $2.1 Million in Bonuses After Years of Incomplete Funding

It is now up to Governor Albert Bryan to decide whether to greenlight payments from the V.I. Lottery to the Government Employees' Retirement System of $2.1 million owed to the pension system for fiscal years of 2021 and 2022. Legislators are demanding that the VI Lottery appropriate $2,158,272 to GERS to cover annual bonus shortfalls that it had failed to apply during those years when it saw significant profits.  Thirteen senators on the Committee on the Whole voted on Tuesday for the organization to pay $961,705 to the retirement system for fiscal year 2021 by September 30, 2022, and also transfer $1,196,567.00 for the fiscal year 2022 by October 31, 2022. In turn, GERS would make those payouts to the affected retirees by December 1, 2022. Bill No. 34-0333 was sponsored by Senate President Donna Frett-Gregory, who last month pointed to discrepancies in the transfer of annual contributions for the Special Education Initiative Fund and the retiree’s bonus which resulted in the V.I. L...