, 1954-05-18

sOA ~
and retail price. In St. Thomas they have a s percent import
duty, but when an item is purchased in 81. Thomas and ship
ped to ST. Croix you can see that the consumer pays II per
cent duty on the article; 5 per cent when itreaches St. Croix
and the s per cent already paid in St. Thomas. There should
he one import duty on imports so that ST. Thomas and st.
ICroix can compete to the benefit of the consumer.
Along the same line on revised taxation, revise the land
tax to pet some equality between the large landowner and
the small landowner. The tax is presently set up on the use
OF the land and if the land is not used at all, little or no tax
lis paid. Under this method land can be held for years unpro-
Iductive1y and no tax is paid by the owner. AS there IS hm1ta-
ton of the amount of land here in these islands it is my idea
that land be tax into productivity of some type-either cat
tie, tourist building sites, or something, so that the land cam
not be held through rises and falls Of the business cycle with
no effect to the owner.
/ tn Sell the Virgin Islands Corporation and the Power
Authority to private capital. If by raising the sugar quota
a private individual would take over VICORP, it would be
considerably better, inmy opinion, than to. continue deficit
appropriations which come out of the United States taxpay-
ers pocket. Although Mr.. Skeoch made a great saving this
past year Saving meaning less lossl I hardly think VVCOKF
could do better with the same sugar quota IN years to come
because Of the rising cost in common labor. however, Win
an increased sugar quota, I think private capital could break
even or make a good profit because of a big saving in the
managerial end of the business.
/ think that in a year or two a purchaser for the Power
Authority could be found and private capital could operate
the Power Authority with better efficiency. I do not think
that the Power Authority would have to be sold by the Gov
iernment at a loss.
O) Presently, the medical services are furnished by the
United States Government, but a doctor who IS paid $lO,OOO
a year by the United States Government is allowed to make
charges to the individual while performing medical services
in the United States Government facilities and on United
States Government time. It is my opinion that tins charge
should be paid into the treasury of the municipality rather
than to the doctor himselfEither the doctor should not be
paid salary by the Government and therefore be in q posi-
ton to collect certain fixed fees, or if paid by the govEn-
ment, he should not be allowed to further charge a patient
while working for the government.
N AS / see il, the only Government aid we presently
need is to build a dock and possibly extend the runway at
the airport. With a dock, living costs should go down, also
the costs Of building materials would be less which would
allow persons with a middle class income to build here. The
runway at the airport is one of the 8 shortest in the Carib-
bean area.
Again let me thank you for your visit here, it was a per-
sonal pleasure to me to have been of what little service I was
to you and your party.
Sincerely yours,
nPrRVRRF - ~ 3UNNH @ -