1 week Ago By John O'Connor | The Guam Daily Post
The Guam Legislature began its emergency session Tuesday, adding two bills onto the session agenda: Bill 355-37, a supplemental funding measure, and Bill 362-37, a measure that would create special crisis procurement authority for the Guam Fire Department. First on the block was Bill 355, which, as introduced, would have appropriated about $36.7 million from fiscal year 2024 general fund excess to various agencies and initiatives, including $2 million to make up a shortfall in the Guam Cancer Trust Fund, $10 million for maintenance and repairs at public schools, $1.
06 million for the Office of Homelessness Assistance and Poverty Prevention and $4.7 million to cover credit card fees for individuals engaging in government transactions. Speaker Therese Terlaje initially called Tuesday's emergency session over critical funding situations at the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority and the Guam Department of Education, as well as the shortfall for the Guam Cancer Trust Fund.
Although Bill 355 includes additional funding for the trust fund and some education-related funding, it does not include funding for GMHA, which was appropriated only about $37.7 million out of its $74.3 million budget request for fiscal year 2025.
In light of that difference, the speaker introduced a separate measure appropriating $20 million more to GMHA, also through fiscal 2024 excess, while the governor has asked that Bill 355 be amended to include $20 million for GMHA. The governor also supported a $1 million appropriation from general fund excess to Guam Unique Merchandise and Art, or GUMA. When Bill 355 was introduced, the general fund was reported to have only about $37.
9 million in net unobligated projected revenue. But now, after the end of the fiscal year, excess revenue is projected at about $51.3 million, according to the September Consolidated Revenue and Expenditure Report for the general fund.
That projected excess considers $16.4 million in projected general fund obligations or liabilities. According to discussions Tuesday, these include a projected $12.
3 million shortfall in the Healthy Futures Fund, $200,000 in prior year obligations for GMHA, a $1.2 million estimated settlement for a 1981 land condemnation case, and a $2.7 million settlement for the attorney who represented claimants in a 1993 class-action lawsuit over the cost-of-living allowance for government retirees.
The projected fiscal 2024 excess left about $14.3 million on top of the proposed appropriations identified in Bill 355. However, as lawmakers waited Tuesday morning for government finance officials to arrive at the session hall, they opted to entertain an amendment to increase funding for the Mayors' Council of Guam.
Mayors and their community maintenance workers headed to the Guam Congress Building as lawmakers began their emergency session. Some watched proceedings from the session hall gallery, while others watched the broadcast in the building lobby. Terlaje proposed the amendment, which initially was to add into Bill 355 a $3.
5 million additional appropriation to the MCOG for operations in fiscal 2025. "As they told us during budget session, that we shortchanged them in the original budget. We told them to take care of the community maintenance workers without giving them funds for that.
And so they estimate that this would be the amount necessary to take care of that. ..
. So I believe we can address this amendment right now, knowing the CRER, and allow these mayors and their community service workers to go back to the villages and do what they are responsible for doing," Terlaje said Tuesday morning. Sen.
Roy Quinata later proposed increasing the funding to $4.5 million, telling colleagues that the MCOG president indicated the additional $1 million could help mayors fund their municipal projects. No objections were raised for the increase or the amendment to add funding for MCOG in Bill 355.
That raised the total proposed appropriation for the measure up to $41.2 million, and still without additional funding for GMHA. Balancing Bureau of Budget and Management Research Director Lester Carlson said Tuesday that he and Department of Administration Director Edward Birn supported $20 million in additional appropriations for the hospital authority.
"And therein lies the proverbial cupid shuffle because when you look at the amount of appropriations in Bill 355, and you add the well-deserved amendments for the Mayors' Council, and then you throw in $20 million for GMH, and the governor's been on record as seeking the Legislature's support for funding for GUMA, ...
and we did not fund the Cancer Trust Fund. ..
. There remains a balancing act to be addressed," Carlson said. Birn also stated that it would be prudent to leave some excess available in case of unforeseen circumstances.
"In saying that, though, I just want to point out that I'm not advocating removing or adding any particular appropriation, merely commenting on the process," Birn said, adding that 1% of projected total revenues for fiscal 2024, or about $10.5 million, would be a good guideline. "One percent doesn't seem a whole lot.
$10.5 million, I know, does seem a whole lot when you're looking at what basically is a fifth of the available money. But certainly .
.. the body should really consider whether to be prudent or not.
My recommendation would be that it should," Birn said. Lawmakers continued to discuss Bill 355 into the afternoon following a lunch recess. Earlier in the emergency session, following brief arguments among Sens.
William Parkinson, Joanne Brown and Telo Taitague over a point of information that Parkinson wanted to make while Brown was speaking, Parkinson was said to have made an "inappropriate gesture" as Brown continued to speak. The camera at the session hall was focused on Brown, so the gesture was not shown during the session broadcast. The gesture led Taitague, who was presiding over the Legislature as the vice chair of the legislative committee on appropriations, to call a short recess.
"We had an inappropriate gesture from Sen. Parkinson which was uncalled-for," Taitague said after she gaveled the Legislature out of recess, before apologizing to Brown and those in attendance at the session hall gallery. The Guam Daily Post asked Parkinson what gesture he made and why he made it.
The senator did not address the questions directly, but provided a release supporting Quinata's amendment to provide $4.5 million to the MCOG..
