Government

Funding Failures Leave National Guard Without Water, Unpaid for Festival Duty, and Behind on Veteran Pensions

Despite there being only one more quarter in the FY2025 fiscal year, the Office of the Adjutant General says over 40% of its budget appropriation “has not been released,” placing the Office’s operations in a precarious position. Insufficient funding, lawmakers learned, is affecting the Office’s ability to purchase drinking water for members of the Virgin Islands National Guard.  This was only one of several worry-inducing revelations shared by Adjutant General Kodjo Knox-Limbacker and his team when they presented their FY2026 budget request to the Committee on Budget, Appropriations, and Finance on Monday. This time, the Office is  requesting $3,243,939 from the general fund, including  $396,000 as a cost-share amount for its federal master cooperative agreement. This, as the Office expects to receive $46,956,770 in federal funding, “16 times” more than the amount being requested from the general fund.  Nikita Ward, the Office’s executive director, provided a breakdown on the general...