Senate Committee Advances Truancy and UVI Employee Payback Bills, Holds Two Others

Of Wednesday’s four agenda items, the Rules and Judiciary Committee advanced legislation aimed to assist the University of the Virgin Islands with payroll taxes accrued on restored employee salaries, and another bill seeking to temper student truancy.

Should Bill No. 34-0173 be signed into law, it would grant an appropriation of nearly $300,000 to UVI for employment tax on the restoration of salaries owed to past and present university employees for an illegal emergency payout in 2011. Moreover, the bill would re-establish annual funding for the Caribbean Green Technology Center and provide increased financial flexibility to support construction of the St. Croix medical school.

“A lot of our public servants (UVI present and former employees) have already received the restoration of their eight percent that was taken away from them in 2011. It’s this body’s responsibility demonstrating how serious we are about repairing damages that were made to our people and placing them back in step and making them whole,” Sen. Carla Joseph said.

Forwarded alongside the university-related bill was legislation seeking to address truancy by cultivating a new process that includes heavy collaboration between school teachers and parents in hopes to avoid student dropouts.