November 3, 2025 • 10 mins
US Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan Jr joins the show to discuss the economic advancements the islands have made in the past five years, how they have recovered from recent hurricanes, and how tariffs have impacted the islands.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us now is the Governor of the United States
Virgin Islands, Albert Brian. Governor, thank you so much for
joining us today. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thank you talk for having me. It's great to be
on the show all the time to talk about what's
going on in the Virgin Islands and what we expect
to see for the upcoming season.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So, Governor, we reached freezing temperatures here this morning, and
we will be for the next several months. I'll allow
you to I'll allow you to boast about your weather
down there eventually, but I actually want to start on
a different subject, which is the state of the government
down in the Virgin Islands. You know up here much
more in the twenty tens was discussed about Puerto Rico's
(00:37):
fiscal situation and the struggles that they had and kind
of overshadowed what was happening in the Virgin Islands in
the late twenty tens. Can you talk to us about
where the territory was at the end of the twenty
ten decade and just where you see it's come over
the course of the last several years.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, I think we were in a really bad place.
So I'm much like Puerto Rico. Often when I go
to the Senate, I have been trying to get a
bill poss that would allow the treasury to back all
our bonds. I mean, it's one simple thing that they
could do in order to shore up. But in twenty ten,
we were facing an energy crisis, we could go to
the markets, mainly because we hadn't completed our audits. We
(01:18):
kind of topped out during the Great Recession. Trying to
just keep the government alive. Is you know, thirty percent
of our population and our workforce works for the government,
and probably another fifteen to twenty percent the total population
is affected by that in terms of whether it's a
spouse or a husband, kids on the support, insurance programs
and whatnot. Also facing us in twenty twelve, we had
(01:41):
the shutdown of the hess Oil or the Ventsa as
people come and lyn it. It's the third largest refinery
in the Western Hemisphere, so it really impacted us. We
lost like twenty percent of our employment overnight. So when
Puerto Rico was going through petebase, so we had to
really fight. I'm saying Petibasa Petivesa on the takeover. We
(02:04):
really had to fight not to be included in a
lot of those bills that Puerto Rico still hasn't really
gotten out of as yet.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It doesn't seem to benefit Puerto Rico all that much.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So since then, we've been me Coming to office in
twenty nineteen, for sure, was about solidifying our finances, making
sure that the Virgin Islands was able to meet its bills,
meet its payrolls and also to expand. And since that
time we've been doing incredibly well.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I have to say.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
We had two major hurricanes, two catfires, back to back
within a month in twenty seventeen, and that caused us
a lot of distress, grief, but it also brought a
lot of opportunity in terms of money. When we started
doing the recovery from this hurricane was under Governor mop
it was about eight billion that we thought we would
(02:56):
recover in damages. We're up to twenty four billion at
the point under a major recovery here in the Islands.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So talk to me about the most recent fiscal year.
You know, what was the success, what is still being
worked down at the government level, and what is the
state of the territories today.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well, one of the things that really hampered us in
the last year was well the last four years is
we get a tox extender called the Rum cover over
and it takes our ten fifty So every proof gallon
of rum we shipped to the United States, we get
back ten fifty of the excise tax. There was a
tax extendard that had been extended multiple times that allowed
(03:37):
us to get three thirteen twenty five. It carried the
amount of the tax we got per proof gallon from
ten twenty five, from ten fifty, sorry to thirteen twenty five.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
We had been trying to.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Get this solidified for a long time. This year under
the bipartisan budget at the Big Beautiful Bill, I'm sorry,
we were successful in getting its solid so now forever
that thirteen fifty is going to come.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Back to the virginis.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The big part about that is is it solidified our
pension system, which is arguably was arguably the worst in
the country. We've now funded that pension system using that.
So every single year we've been moving along, we've been
making tremendous strides. That was a big one for this year.
I think we also during the last administration, we got
(04:29):
our match for this twenty four billion reduced from ten
percent to two percent under the Biden administration, so that
was big for US as well. Coming into President Trump.
The good news is the Virgin Islands is not affected
by any of the Trump tarffs.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So see that surprised.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I mean, I would think by necessity the territories have
to import a lot of stuff, but I guess the
answer is that it's coming from either within the United
States rather than and importing a whole lot from overseas.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, so, I mean ninety percent of everything we get
comes from the US mainline, we would never be able
to sustain the amount of people on such a small
island just from beginning for beginners, but then we get
a large tourism economy that's on fire, and that all
the liquor is imported and everything else or to service
those needs as well. So not being affected by these
(05:27):
twists have been kind of like going all over the
place saying, hey, you can import your stuff into the
Virgin Islands. We have a free trade zone and not
pay the Trump tarras. And if you have thirty percent
in value, danny becomes a US made product and it
can go into the United States taro free. So we've
been getting a lot of calls about our free trade
(05:48):
zone in sync Court, specifically where we have a deep
water port, and the ability to extend tax benefits on
top of that. So you get one hundred percent reduction
of your state taxes and ninety percent reduction of your
federal income taxes.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So it's kind of like no tariff, no tox.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's a supercondition for charging our industrial sector, a light
industry sector here in the island. So I'm doing a
lot of worker I'm not.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Governor on that on that subject, if you don't mind,
So I'm sure the first very question is about those
potential tax benefits and how it all works into the tariffs.
I would imagine the second question has to be about
infrastructure and what companies are used to versus what the
Virgin Island has been focusing on developing. What is you know,
(06:41):
what do you see as the biggest infrastructure accomplishments, say
in future projects that need to be accomplished to continue
to drive growth there.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So so just to get just to kind of picture
what we're talking about here, our entire economy is about
four billion dollars this year. We have already issued six
billion in contracts. We already had a billion out and
by the end of the year we would have issued
eight billion in contracts. That means new schools, new hospital,
(07:08):
all new underground water sewer electric. We're putting in two
new power plants Saint Croix in this last year. The
second solar farm we opened up Saint Croix peaks at
forty four megawatts. We have thirty five megawats of solar
pound for pound, we have the most solar per capita
(07:29):
in the world. We're about to open two more plants,
one in Saint Thomas on the west end and one
on the East end, which will also bolster the solar
generating power of that island as well too. So my
race is to get a power down to put in.
Contracts have now been let for most of Saint Croix
(07:51):
underground water sewer, Saint Thomas's on the way as well,
and we're getting two new essentially two new power plants
in Saint Thomas. The sides of Solo that we've installed,
we're putting in much more efficient generators, trying to drive
down the cost of.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Energy so governa.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Obviously, tourism is always a big focus for the Virgin Islands.
What else is at the top of your list for
twenty twenty six in terms of priorities.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So we got this year. We opened up the first
hotel in thirty five years. Hampton is right on the
beautiful wayco Doc in downtown Saint Thomas Salad Amali, and
we're working on a deal where ownership of the Premier
Frenchman's Reef, another hotel, will revert back to the Virgin
Islands government courtesy of our Hotel Development OX. So we've
(08:42):
been finally started building and renovating our hotels because we
have a law that says you can take the hotel
room tax, which is at about fourteen percent, increase it
by seven points so that you can actually take the
twenty one percent room tax and ref rehab.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Or build a new hotels.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
So we've been getting a lot of track film hoteliers
using that in order to finance building all these new developments.
So that is really there. And then for twenty twenty
I leave office in January twenty seventh. So my race
now is getting a power plant and getting energy in
the right place that if we get our power, our
(09:27):
energy down to about twenty something since in the industrial
power I'm trying to be able to give it at
twelve cents. Couple with a tariff break on the tax
initiatives that we have, I really think we could put
more fire in our economy. So that's what I'm really
focused on.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Governor Albert Bryan of the United States Version Iiles joined
us today talk about the state of the Virgin Island,
state of the economy there, and economic development. Governor, really
appreciate you coming on as always and looking forward to
chatting with you again and as we had in the
last couple months of the year here fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Can have a sunny Virgin Islands that hate that code
for you, but it's good for me.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Come down. Thank you. Governor
Joining us now is the Governor of the United States
Virgin Islands, Albert Brian. Governor, thank you so much for
joining us today. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thank you talk for having me. It's great to be
on the show all the time to talk about what's
going on in the Virgin Islands and what we expect
to see for the upcoming season.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So, Governor, we reached freezing temperatures here this morning, and
we will be for the next several months. I'll allow
you to I'll allow you to boast about your weather
down there eventually, but I actually want to start on
a different subject, which is the state of the government
down in the Virgin Islands. You know up here much
more in the twenty tens was discussed about Puerto Rico's
(00:37):
fiscal situation and the struggles that they had and kind
of overshadowed what was happening in the Virgin Islands in
the late twenty tens. Can you talk to us about
where the territory was at the end of the twenty
ten decade and just where you see it's come over
the course of the last several years.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, I think we were in a really bad place.
So I'm much like Puerto Rico. Often when I go
to the Senate, I have been trying to get a
bill poss that would allow the treasury to back all
our bonds. I mean, it's one simple thing that they
could do in order to shore up. But in twenty ten,
we were facing an energy crisis, we could go to
the markets, mainly because we hadn't completed our audits. We
(01:18):
kind of topped out during the Great Recession. Trying to
just keep the government alive. Is you know, thirty percent
of our population and our workforce works for the government,
and probably another fifteen to twenty percent the total population
is affected by that in terms of whether it's a
spouse or a husband, kids on the support, insurance programs
and whatnot. Also facing us in twenty twelve, we had
(01:41):
the shutdown of the hess Oil or the Ventsa as
people come and lyn it. It's the third largest refinery
in the Western Hemisphere, so it really impacted us. We
lost like twenty percent of our employment overnight. So when
Puerto Rico was going through petebase, so we had to
really fight. I'm saying Petibasa Petivesa on the takeover. We
(02:04):
really had to fight not to be included in a
lot of those bills that Puerto Rico still hasn't really
gotten out of as yet.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It doesn't seem to benefit Puerto Rico all that much.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So since then, we've been me Coming to office in
twenty nineteen, for sure, was about solidifying our finances, making
sure that the Virgin Islands was able to meet its bills,
meet its payrolls and also to expand. And since that
time we've been doing incredibly well.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I have to say.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
We had two major hurricanes, two catfires, back to back
within a month in twenty seventeen, and that caused us
a lot of distress, grief, but it also brought a
lot of opportunity in terms of money. When we started
doing the recovery from this hurricane was under Governor mop
it was about eight billion that we thought we would
(02:56):
recover in damages. We're up to twenty four billion at
the point under a major recovery here in the Islands.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So talk to me about the most recent fiscal year.
You know, what was the success, what is still being
worked down at the government level, and what is the
state of the territories today.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well, one of the things that really hampered us in
the last year was well the last four years is
we get a tox extender called the Rum cover over
and it takes our ten fifty So every proof gallon
of rum we shipped to the United States, we get
back ten fifty of the excise tax. There was a
tax extendard that had been extended multiple times that allowed
(03:37):
us to get three thirteen twenty five. It carried the
amount of the tax we got per proof gallon from
ten twenty five, from ten fifty, sorry to thirteen twenty five.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
We had been trying to.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Get this solidified for a long time. This year under
the bipartisan budget at the Big Beautiful Bill, I'm sorry,
we were successful in getting its solid so now forever
that thirteen fifty is going to come.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Back to the virginis.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The big part about that is is it solidified our
pension system, which is arguably was arguably the worst in
the country. We've now funded that pension system using that.
So every single year we've been moving along, we've been
making tremendous strides. That was a big one for this year.
I think we also during the last administration, we got
(04:29):
our match for this twenty four billion reduced from ten
percent to two percent under the Biden administration, so that
was big for US as well. Coming into President Trump.
The good news is the Virgin Islands is not affected
by any of the Trump tarffs.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So see that surprised.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I mean, I would think by necessity the territories have
to import a lot of stuff, but I guess the
answer is that it's coming from either within the United
States rather than and importing a whole lot from overseas.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, so, I mean ninety percent of everything we get
comes from the US mainline, we would never be able
to sustain the amount of people on such a small
island just from beginning for beginners, but then we get
a large tourism economy that's on fire, and that all
the liquor is imported and everything else or to service
those needs as well. So not being affected by these
(05:27):
twists have been kind of like going all over the
place saying, hey, you can import your stuff into the
Virgin Islands. We have a free trade zone and not
pay the Trump tarras. And if you have thirty percent
in value, danny becomes a US made product and it
can go into the United States taro free. So we've
been getting a lot of calls about our free trade
(05:48):
zone in sync Court, specifically where we have a deep
water port, and the ability to extend tax benefits on
top of that. So you get one hundred percent reduction
of your state taxes and ninety percent reduction of your
federal income taxes.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So it's kind of like no tariff, no tox.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's a supercondition for charging our industrial sector, a light
industry sector here in the island. So I'm doing a
lot of worker I'm not.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Governor on that on that subject, if you don't mind,
So I'm sure the first very question is about those
potential tax benefits and how it all works into the tariffs.
I would imagine the second question has to be about
infrastructure and what companies are used to versus what the
Virgin Island has been focusing on developing. What is you know,
(06:41):
what do you see as the biggest infrastructure accomplishments, say
in future projects that need to be accomplished to continue
to drive growth there.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So so just to get just to kind of picture
what we're talking about here, our entire economy is about
four billion dollars this year. We have already issued six
billion in contracts. We already had a billion out and
by the end of the year we would have issued
eight billion in contracts. That means new schools, new hospital,
(07:08):
all new underground water sewer electric. We're putting in two
new power plants Saint Croix in this last year. The
second solar farm we opened up Saint Croix peaks at
forty four megawatts. We have thirty five megawats of solar
pound for pound, we have the most solar per capita
(07:29):
in the world. We're about to open two more plants,
one in Saint Thomas on the west end and one
on the East end, which will also bolster the solar
generating power of that island as well too. So my
race is to get a power down to put in.
Contracts have now been let for most of Saint Croix
(07:51):
underground water sewer, Saint Thomas's on the way as well,
and we're getting two new essentially two new power plants
in Saint Thomas. The sides of Solo that we've installed,
we're putting in much more efficient generators, trying to drive
down the cost of.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Energy so governa.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Obviously, tourism is always a big focus for the Virgin Islands.
What else is at the top of your list for
twenty twenty six in terms of priorities.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So we got this year. We opened up the first
hotel in thirty five years. Hampton is right on the
beautiful wayco Doc in downtown Saint Thomas Salad Amali, and
we're working on a deal where ownership of the Premier
Frenchman's Reef, another hotel, will revert back to the Virgin
Islands government courtesy of our Hotel Development OX. So we've
(08:42):
been finally started building and renovating our hotels because we
have a law that says you can take the hotel
room tax, which is at about fourteen percent, increase it
by seven points so that you can actually take the
twenty one percent room tax and ref rehab.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Or build a new hotels.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
So we've been getting a lot of track film hoteliers
using that in order to finance building all these new developments.
So that is really there. And then for twenty twenty
I leave office in January twenty seventh. So my race
now is getting a power plant and getting energy in
the right place that if we get our power, our
(09:27):
energy down to about twenty something since in the industrial
power I'm trying to be able to give it at
twelve cents. Couple with a tariff break on the tax
initiatives that we have, I really think we could put
more fire in our economy. So that's what I'm really
focused on.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Governor Albert Bryan of the United States Version Iiles joined
us today talk about the state of the Virgin Island,
state of the economy there, and economic development. Governor, really
appreciate you coming on as always and looking forward to
chatting with you again and as we had in the
last couple months of the year here fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Can have a sunny Virgin Islands that hate that code
for you, but it's good for me.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Come down. Thank you. Governor
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!