Our leaders spend but don't lead
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The "game" is over. For many years we have tried to fund a bloated, inefficient public-sector bureaucracy.
The concept of developing a stable middle class through public employment is a valid one. However, after achieving such a result, our supposed leaders should have slowly made a transition to private-sector employment.
Instead, our private sector has been demonized for its accountability and has had to contend with such requirements as wrongful discharge - which actually limits hiring - and the Gross Receipts Tax. If an importer, wholesaler and retailer all pay Gross Receipts Tax on an item, the effective tax rate is actually much more than 15 percent.
It is a hidden tax that we all pay and that ultimately leaves local tax-paying businesses uncompetitive, especially with the advent of the internet.
Speaking of internet, please tell me why our government, with its next generation broadband initiative, is spending more than $30 million in scarce public resources to develop services that already are being provided by V.I. Broadband, Innovative and Choice? Is this the new dumping ground for this administration's political hacks (with the exception of Alfred Boschulte, its current able leader) whose skills can certainly be used elsewhere?
Our elected leaders' only solution is to increase borrowing. Over the last several years, we have borrowed more than one-half billion dollars to make payroll. The day of reckoning has repeatedly been postponed, the end result of which is much greater pain for all.
And as this day is now here, let's see dismissals from our bloated educational bureaucracy, rather than from the ranks of our hard-working teachers, and decrease our number of senators - as was requested by our electorate but ignored by our senate.
In times of crisis, difficult and often radical solutions are necessary. It is time for us to come together as a community and forge innovative solutions that will serve as a wellspring of hope.
We must not be afraid of change. We are a strong and resilient community and while this may be difficult, we will persevere.
- Richard Johnson lives on St. Croix.
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