By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

THE legislative committee on finance, taxation and commerce is scheduled to hear next week the administration’s bill proposing a $123.8 million loan agreement for the payment of the cost of living allowance, and the legislation that requires the administration to institute a fiscal recovery plan.
Sen. Frank Ishizaki, R-Yona, has sponsored the administration’s COLA bill, which would authorize the loan agreement between the government of Guam and a financial lenders consortium led by the Bank of Guam.
The money that the administration seeks to borrow is intended to clear the way for the  payment of the $123 million COLA that the Superior Court awarded to 4,000 retirees who make up the class that sued the government 13 years ago.
Under the proposed agreement, the loan would be payable annually in 15 installments at an interest rate of 7 percent a year.  The administration pledges up to $10 million a year from the Section 30 money received by Guam in federal tax reimbursements.
Ishizaki, former chief of the Guam Police Department, is a freshman senator. Bill 23 is his first bill.
The other bill on the agenda is Bill 15, which would require the administration to submit a monthly revenue tracking report and to institute a fiscal recovery plan, if needed.
Authored by the committee chairman, Vice Speaker Eddie Calvo, R-Maite, Bill 15 requires that the directors of the Department of Administration,  the Department of Revenue and Taxation, and the Bureau of Budget and Management Research provide a revenue tracking for the balance of the fiscal year “based upon the actual collections of the preceding month and prepare a comparative statement of  the actual and projected revenues.”
The bill provides that if the projected fiscal year 2007 revenues based on collection experience results in a 3 percent fluctuation, then the governor would be required to submit a fiscal realignment plan that will address the revenue fluctuation.