No later than May 30, the VI Legislature will receive the Governor’s FY2026 Budget Request. This will initiate your first participation in one of your most important duty, as a member of the VI Legislature: to authorize the use of public money for public purposes. No later than September 30, the Legislature must convert the Governor’s budget requests to spending authorizations. These become appropriations when formalized by Appropriation Acts. Collectively, these Acts will comprise the FY2026 Approved Budget.
But the budget is more than the numbers on the many pages of Appropriations Acts. It is the critical link of the compact between VI citizens and their elected government; in which they consent to being taxed, in return for services they consider essential to their wellbeing. On a personal level, it is the mechanism by which you, as Senators, fulfill your campaign promises to those citizens in return for their votes. That is why the budget is considered the primary instrument of public sector governance in a representative democracy.
The VI Code mandates the Governor to present a balanced budget; meaning that “proposed expenditures shall not exceed estimated receipts and surpluses.” The focus on receipts and expenditures – rather than revenues and expenses – is instructive; for it emphasizes that the budget should be balanced on a cash flow basis. It acknowledges that without cash, appropriations are just promises. The Finance Committee should require a “Budget Statement of Receipts, Expenditures and Surplus”, prepared according to generally accepted principles and the VI Code. This is to provide credible assurance of cash support for appropriations.
When the Legislature authorizes more expenditure than available cash, it relinquishes control of the public purse to the Executive Branch. It is comparable to approving a shopping list without enough money for all the items; thereby empowering the shopper to prioritize the purchases.
That is why claims that "the Administration has improperly spent money that was set aside by the Legislature for other purposes" are misleading – at best. Firstly, the Legislature does not have money to set aside; its appropriations are always subject to the availability of funds. Secondly, any expenditure item that is authorized by an appropriation – i.e., is on the approved shopping list -- is within the Governor’s discretion. It is valid, however, to question expenditure that cannot be traced to an appropriation; or other Legislative authorization.
More than likely, this is going to be your biggest and most complex budgeting undertaking. Chances are you have not had to coordinate with 14 others to put together a $1.5 billion spending plan, for 40-plus departments and agencies, with over 5,000 employees. Even in good fiscal times, that would be a challenging undertaking. But you are surely aware that these are not good fiscal times for GVI – notwithstanding claims to the contrary.
The GVI has long presented symptoms of acute fiscal distress: structural multi-million-dollar deficits; unhealthily thin operating cash margins -- often less than five days' cash on hand -- hundreds of millions of long delinquent salary increases, tax refunds and vendor payments; credit rating downgrade, leading to limited credit access. More recently, $400 million required to match $20 billion in approved Federal grants. The distress signals get more alarming with every Legislative Committee Hearing; enough to upgrade your first budget review from challenging to daunting.
Your task will be less intimidating and your participation more impactful if you maintain a strategic focus. Like a Board of Directors, the Legislature’s role in the budget process ought to be more about policy and outcomes, than practices and operations: more about poor and declining English and Math proficiency, than about DOE’s vehicle parking practices; more about soaring youth violence, than VIPD overtime. Leave to the Governor the things that are the Governor’s; for he too was elected by the people – with a mandate to manage the Executive Branch of Government.
You would have carried out your responsibilities well if you approve a budget that is aligned with clearly stated strategic priorities and objectives, and which complies with the VI Code requirement that budgeted expenditures do not exceed estimated receipts and surpluses.
