Newly Named Administrators Field Finance Questions from Senate Budget Committee

After weeks of holding budget review hearings for fiscal year 2024, the 35th Legislature Committee on Budget, Appropriations, and Finance heard from two semi-autonomous agencies.

The lead testifiers for the Government Employees’ Retirement System and the Magens Bay Authority said they came to present overviews of their operations. Both Interim GERS Administrator Angel Dawson and Magens Bay Authority Interim General Manager MemorieAnne Brown-Callender both pointed out that their agencies are not funded through the executive budget.

Committee Chairwoman Donna Frett-Gregory said the third agency scheduled to appear on Tuesday — the Virgin Islands Next Generation Network — did not appear but will be rescheduled.

For the next five-and-a-half hours, agency teams spoke about their accomplishments from the current spending year and answered questions about the challenges they face.

Dawson reminded committee members that a few years ago, pension officials predicted GERS’ insolvency by 2024. Much of that changed when the Legislature and Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. came up with a financing plan using rum cover-over funds.