Virgin Islands Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett issued the following statement in response to the Fitch Ratings’ decision to downgrade the Virgin Islands’ gross receipts and matching fund bonds:
“Fitch and other rating agencies’ assessment of PROMESA and their determination to include all the territories as at risk due to Congress' action to protect bond holders confirms our concerns about the bill's shortsighted reach by providing payment for debt without giving support to Puerto Rico to generate new revenues.
PROMESA did nothing to address the root cause of Puerto Rico’s debt much less that of the other territories. Its function is merely to pay Wall Street and use Puerto Rico as an incubator for Republican policy. Under PROMESA, Puerto Rico will have no means of determining how it would pay or restructure its debt. The rating agencies have now seen, in clear terms, what the leaders and people of the Virgin Islands and other territories have known for some time; that Congress does have the ability to determine debt payment restructure and provide real support for the territories when it chooses to take responsibility for it.
This Congress is unwilling to go the extra and most important step to create parity with the other states in critical programs.
I am hopeful our local government will use this as a critical juncture in our government operations to look outside of bonds for revenue generation. My office will support in any way we can and will continue working to develop creative mechanism to incentivize new business and economic growth.”
###
