As the legislative session concluded this week, the five bills penned by Senator Frank Aguon, Jr. appropriating part of the $1.57 realized savings from FY 2015 which he pushed to at least go into voting was finally voted down.
On Tuesday, as expected, Bills 153-33 (LS), 154-33 (LS), 155-33 (LS), 156-33 (LS), and 157-33 (LS) all got nay votes. These bills could have appropriated some money to fund the fallen heroes monument, repair Yona gym facilities, repair and upgrade Talafofo baseball field, repair the Umatac Bridge, and completion of Sinajana open air gymnasium and building of a playground.
But there is no money for those grassroots project, because as the administration put it, they used the intended fund to pay tax refunds.
Last week, two other bills filed by Senator Nerissa Underwood were sent back to the committee because of the same reason, no funds available. Underwood’s bills would have appropriated part of the realized savings for UOG and to pay GDOE’s vendors. Underwood said, “That is not just payroll, that’s about them not being able to save for the contractors for the air conditioning service contract. That’s about them not being able to pay the vendors who provide the supplies and materials so that our kids have their crayons to color with, so that kids the books to read with, so that our students have the pencil to write with.”
And while she appealed to the Governor to “please, for goodness’ sake, let’s walk our talk about putting education first,” she realized the bill won’t go anywhere so she decided to just bring it back to the committee.
But where did this “putting education first” come from? It is recalled that last year, Governor Eddie Baza Calvo vetoed Bill No. 362-32 (COR) authored by Senator Mike San Nicolas which was meant to (among others), reduce the statute of limitations on the collection of real property tax to 10 years instead of the current 30 years. Calvo in his memo said that he vetoed the bill because “approximately $22.5 million would be wiped off the books and become legally uncollectable.” Under the law, real property tax revenues are deposited into the TEFF (Territorial Education Facilities). Calvo further said, “It cannot be forgotten that one of the purposes of the TEFF is to construct and refurbish Guam’s educational facilities. We should be doing everything possible to support and prioritize our schools.” But Underwood said that UOG is short of $4.5 M, DOE is short of $6M, and GCC is yet to receive $6.6M for 2015 fiscal year. This now puts into question Governor’s sincerity in prioritizing our schools./Junction News Team
