Gov. Mapp

I don't think it matters much.
The future is evident either way.
It's worked great so far!

God bless the Virgin Islands. God bless Ken Mapp.

Just what we need...1,000 government employees that we can't afford. Who is going to pay for them...and why do we need them?

Latest release has 33 of 37 precincts reporting (as of 9:30pm):

PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 37) . . . . . 33 89.19 %
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REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL . . . . . 51,326

BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL. . . . . . . 23,966
BALLOTS CAST - BLANK. . . . . . . 67 .28 %

VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL . . . . . . 46.69 %
VOTER TURNOUT - BLANK . . . . . . .13 %
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GOVERNOR & LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR (VOTE FOR) 1

Kenneth E. Mapp (IND) . . . . . . 15,268 63.89 %
Donna Christensen (DEM). . . . . . 8,573 35.87 %
WRITE-IN (IND). . . . . . . . . 58 .24 %

A candidate is generally defined by his/her supporters. Some of the secession people, those who want the Virgin Islands to be its own nation and secede from the United States support Mapp, which is what makes me a bit uneasy.

I know Rena Brodhurst Editor of the Avis and a small group of citizens wanted STX to break away and be a separate territory of the US. I have never heard of a secession movement, so if you have the names of both of those secessionist individuals then be sure to let us know.
Congrats to Ken Mapp. You won a campaign because it was about rebuilding the VI. It was not about him. It was about seeking to make history.

"A society of sheep will in time beget a government of wolves."

Let's hope that your faith in this particular wolf is not misplaced.
Whether you reorganize debt, it is still debt. Then you add all the salaries, health care costs, perks, and retirement benefits
, etc., for 1000 new hires, many of which won't be qualified for those jobs, to the already bloated debt and was whaadya got?
MORE DEBT!
Good grief!
Snap out of the delusions!

(I hope I am completely wrong.)

I don't think it matters much.
The future is evident either way.
It's worked great so far!

Nailed it!

Edited to add: assuming your last line was sarcastic.
And Alana, I fear you are right.

I know Rena Brodhurst Editor of the Avis and a small group of citizens wanted STX to break away and be a separate territory of the US. I have never heard of a secession movement, so if you have the names of both of those secessionist individuals then be sure to let us know.
Congrats to Ken Mapp. You won a campaign because it was about rebuilding the VI. It was not about him. It was about seeking to make history.

North VI and South VI?

i too was wondering where the money was going to come from to pay for those additional 1000 government employees. what new money if going to pay for them. especially when we have had deep cuts in the numbers of government workers, the 8% pay cut ( which i believe was reversed this past year ) the government does not have enough money to pay for its over inflated costs now

God bless the Virgin Islands. God bless Ken Mapp.

If there was really a god, he/she/it wouldn't have let the VI become the mess that it is.

They all make promises during the election cycle. They are rarely able to follow through.

Meet the new boss...same as the old boss.

If anybody believes he will hire 1,000 employees, they probably also believe in Santa Claus. That same person who put the hex on me, said they would welcome me for one of those jobs and I should take one to help "the nation."

Many of his supporters are expecting jobs so the cycle continues - more unqualified people in government jobs.

This may be the U.S. Virgin Islands, but many residents don't have a U.S. mentality. Most other Caribbean islands have restrictions for those who do not have a generational legacy, and most businesses are owned by locals. Not so here, and there is resentment that some politicians exploit.

Mapp may fire employees to hire those 1,000 employees.

Regarding the 1000 new jobs, I did watch an interview with Mapp where he explained this. He said that by hiring new policemen/policewomen the reduction in overtime would pay the salaries of the new hires. Same with hiring teachers and reducing the number of substitute teachers. While that certainly sounds logical, I believe if there were qualified candidates for these positions available now then they would have already been hired. And bringing in qualified state siders has been proven problematic for various reasons numerous times in the past. So where are these qualified people coming from. I read an article a while back on the police application exam and, while I don't remember the details, the pass rate on just the written exam was pathetic.

At any rate, the candidate for governor I initially voted for did not make the runoff, and the candidate I voted for by default in the runoff lost handily. And only three of my senate candidates won also. But the sun still came up this morning and the day was as beautiful as most, and I remain confident that four years from now my daily life will still be pretty good, regardless of whoever the Senate or Governor is, same as it has been for the past ten years here.

Thanks for voting!

I don't think it matters much.
The future is evident either way.
It's worked great so far!

Nailed it!

Edited to add: assuming your last line was sarcastic.
And Alana, I fear you are right.

I guess cynical comments have become more common lately for me, must be middle age.

I heard a lot of teeth sucking when the safari passed a man holding the paper with the headline 'Mapp Wins' today.

Probably none of those teeth suckers voted, and they probably would have sucked their teeth no matter who won.

God bless the VI has nothing to do with religion, rather a resolve to fix the last eight years.

How is Mapp going to pay for the 1000 new hires?
Briefly again, if you were paying attention.....
1. Repackaging bonds and debt for lower interest
2. Cutting out the double and triple overtime pay already given to nurses, police, and corrections officers, while satisfying the federal consent decrees to all relevant agencies.
Same money, more bodies.
One policeman with benefits at 80 hrs/wk (100 paid hours) = two policemen with benefits 40 hrs/wk. ditto for nurses, correction officers etc
3. Replacing retired teachers who substitute at a higher hourly rate than teachers. Currently teachers earn $32k, substitutes earn $42k, giving children a more consistent energized teacher.
4. Hiring qualified revenue collectors to grab the $200 million outstanding as well as new debt.

I would think you guys would appreciate moving the same money around, fulfilling consent decrees, providing more policemen and nurses, giving overworked employees more relief, having more people pay into the cash strapped pension obligation fund, collecting more outstanding debt, while at the same time hiring and retaining a qualified middle class would be pleasing to most of the people who blog here.
I am so tired of the current entitled class of do-nothings and know-nothings with unclassified jobs. Good riddance. Almost 1000 in all. Remember that almost half of them will automatically go home or transition with training to police, teachers and nurses. Revenue collectors.
As to the question of if you already had them they would be hired.. large numbers of teachers and nurses left because of the 8 % cut. They were not made exempt by the current governor. More are graduating, more might come back, especially with a small increase in starting salary, not terminal salaries, to teachers.
We know that the current borrowing and violations of the consent decrees and CMS Systems Agreement cannot continue. We know that doing the same deJongh thing and expecting a different result will not work.

I wasn't quite eligible to vote this election. Missed it by a few weeks because of the having to be registered 30 days prior to the election.

MissJustice, That all sounds like a good plan. I hope the new governor is able to follow through and implement it in a timely manner.

Besides the hiring of 1,000 new workers what are some of Mapp's other campaign promises that swayed people in his direction? The workers one is the only one I seem to hear people talking about.

Although I was not crazy about either one, I picked Mapp based on some of his statements in the Daily News: that he was in favor of charter schools, that he felt some crisis/turn-around specialists should be brought in for problem areas and that he thought cheap energy in the short run was important. I don't have any delusions that he will actually follow through on these, but I didn't hear anything from the other side.

Postscript to the election.

Someone said that I was "inexplicably and baselessly optimistic" about the VI. (I first came here when my family bought a vacation house in 1959 and although I have not lived here my whole life, I have lived on both STT and STX -- and I still love it.)

I've gotten through the entire election without partisan comments -- so here's a non-partisan final thought as a postscript. I was talking to my father-in-law who lives in Michigan. He asked how the runoff election went. I said "We had one candidate who is a doctor and had many years of experience as our Delegate, and another who has two Harvard advanced degrees and has been both Lt. Governor and the head of our PFA -- and the runoff election went flawlessly from a procedural standpoint with all results within a couple of hours."

He said "Wow....compared to most of the governors' races in the States you had well-educated and experienced people running, and it seems to have gone well."

Think about that. Think about some of the complete, useless yahoos who ran (and several that got elected or almost elected) in the States. (I'm talking to you Ed "Enron" Gillespie.) I'd say the VI did pretty well for itself in finding a number of viable candidates and getting them through the vote with the usual VI flair for Maximum Vocal Participation in the Process.

I know there are issues -- there have been since '59 (many the same now as then).....but I would move here again.

Carl, your father in law does not know the history of the candidates so has no credibility in this issue, IMO.

A degree doesn't screen for ethics either past or present. You complete coursework, you get your degree.

He had the support of those mostly earning cash, and don't want scrutiny. That has been huge problem for years. Hard to collect fair share of taxes from all.

You won't find proof on Google but anybody who has paid cash for services in VI should be getting a cash discount.

God bless the VI has nothing to do with religion, rather a resolve to fix the last eight years.

How is Mapp going to pay for the 1000 new hires?
Briefly again, if you were paying attention.....
1. Repackaging bonds and debt for lower interest
2. Cutting out the double and triple overtime pay already given to nurses, police, and corrections officers, while satisfying the federal consent decrees to all relevant agencies.
Same money, more bodies.
One policeman with benefits at 80 hrs/wk (100 paid hours) = two policemen with benefits 40 hrs/wk. ditto for nurses, correction officers etc
3. Replacing retired teachers who substitute at a higher hourly rate than teachers. Currently teachers earn $32k, substitutes earn $42k, giving children a more consistent energized teacher.
4. Hiring qualified revenue collectors to grab the $200 million outstanding as well as new debt.

I would think you guys would appreciate moving the same money around, fulfilling consent decrees, providing more policemen and nurses, giving overworked employees more relief, having more people pay into the cash strapped pension obligation fund, collecting more outstanding debt, while at the same time hiring and retaining a qualified middle class would be pleasing to most of the people who blog here.
I am so tired of the current entitled class of do-nothings and know-nothings with unclassified jobs. Good riddance. Almost 1000 in all. Remember that almost half of them will automatically go home or transition with training to police, teachers and nurses. Revenue collectors.
As to the question of if you already had them they would be hired.. large numbers of teachers and nurses left because of the 8 % cut. They were not made exempt by the current governor. More are graduating, more might come back, especially with a small increase in starting salary, not terminal salaries, to teachers.
We know that the current borrowing and violations of the consent decrees and CMS Systems Agreement cannot continue. We know that doing the same deJongh thing and expecting a different result will not work.

Well, he hasn't done anything yet so I'll wait and see what type of wolf he is, tho that's giving wolves a bad name. Hopefully he can keep his sticky fingers in his pocket for awhile.