Business

Analysis | With Federal Dollars Pouring In, It May Be Difficult To Beat Mapp In November

Governor Kenneth Mapp, as of now, is not among the most popular governors the U.S. Virgin Islands has seen. His mouth is unbridled, sometimes vulgar. He disrespects journalists, is believed to be vindictive by many Virgin Islanders, and recently defended himself in a Consortium interview against allegations of being a bully. Before Hurricanes Irma and Maria mercilessly battered the territory, the administration was struggling to meet payroll, with Valdamier Collens, Dept. of Finance Commissioner, on multiple occasions in February 2017 warning of the government's diminishing cash-on-hand situation. A month earlier, in January 2017, the government was seeking over $100 million to bridge a budget deficit of roughly $100 million, but it was rejected by the bond market. That rejection served as a wake-up call to both the legislative and administrative branches of government, sending both scrambling for solutions. All this time, unemployment remained high, the economy was anemic, and th...