By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

AS THE Legislature came closer to concluding the budget process yesterday, Democratic senators asked their colleagues to reconsider the proposed funding cut for the mayors’ council.
Sens. Judith Guthertz, D-Mangilao, Tina Muna Barnes, D-Mangilao, and Rory Respicio, D-Agana Heights, took up the cudgels for the mayors and proposed the restoration of the original funding allotment for the council.
The governor’s revised 2007 budget plan proposes a 2.5 percent cut for all departments and agencies, which would reduce the appropriation for the mayors’ council by $188,991.
The original budget law gave the mayors’ council a budget of $7,556,112, which would be down to $7,367,209 under Bill 74, the governor’s proposed revision.
“I object to a funding cut for the council. The mayors are already experiencing serious difficulties with the current funding level that they have,” Guthertz said.
Barnes echoed Gu-thertz’s sentiment, also noting that the mayors’ council has already received 100 percent of the appropriation.
“How can we take back what has been given to them already? The money is almost gone. How can we reduce something that is not there anymore?” Barnes said.
Barnes questioned the prudence of cutting the appropriation for the village mayors, who are the community’s “first responders.”
Respicio introduced a motion to recess the session and call the mayors to testify.
He noted that while the council has expressed its opposition to the budget cut proposal through the media, senators have yet to get first hand input.
Piti Mayor Ben Gumataotao promptly showed up at the Legislature upon receiving the call to testify.
“There’s nothing to cut. Our money is almost gone and we need more,” Gumataotao said in an interview with Variety before he was called to the panel.
He said most mayors, including himself, have been using their personal funds to allow their offices to get by. “I recently used $500 from my own pocket for the Easter activity in my community,” Gumataotao said.
“Anything that we do requires money. We can continue to provide services to the people, but it’s impossible for us to expand our services. We are ‘skin-and-bone.’ We don’t have any fat at all. Mayors have been abused and our offices are under-funded all the time,” the Piti mayor said.