Bryan signs budget bills, vetoes others including bill to raise rental car fees

ST. CROIX — Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. took action on 45 bills passed by the 35th Legislature during its Sept. 27 session, Government House announced Tuesday evening.

The majority of the approved measures were budget bills allocating and appropriating funds to various government agencies for the 2025 fiscal year or zoning amendments. Bryan partially or entirely vetoed five measures, including one appropriating tens of millions of dollars received from the government’s settlement agreements with Leon Black and the estate of Jeffrey Epstein to a range of community services and infrastructure projects.

That bill established two funds within the Virgin Islands Treasury called the “Southern Trust Settlement Fund” and the “Survivors and Mental Health Healing Trust Fund.” The measure allocated nearly $106 million from the government’s settlement with Epstein’s estate to the former and nearly $11 million to the latter. $47.5 million from the government’s settlement agreement with Black were allocated to the STC Settlement Fund and $15 million to the Survivors and Mental Health Healing Trust Fund.