By Trina A. San Agustin
Variety News Staff

THE Guam Federation of Teachers is calling on Gov. Felix P. Camacho to veto the fiscal year 2007 budget bill, saying that the bill will have damaging effects on the island’s working families.
The governor has until May 21 to act on Bill 74; otherwise, the bill automatically becomes law.
GFT president Matt Rector, in a statement yesterday, called on Camacho to “support Guam’s women, children, families and manamko’ by vetoing Bill 74.”
“With massive cuts to already under-funded, understaffed and overstretched public services, we will not only be leaving the most vulnerable of our people behind but we will be endangering the health and safety of all of our families,” the GFT president said.
“Our families have suffered enough,” he said. “These cuts aren’t just numbers on paper. They are going to have real consequences to real people. Not only are public servants and their families going to suffer from the loss of jobs and income but the most vulnerable members of our society, women, children, manamko’, and people with disabilities are going to suffer from the lack of public services.”
Rector believes the budget cuts will mostly affect the neediest of society and will send a ripple effect to every sector of our island.
GFT pointed out the cash shortfall for this fiscal year could be cured by a 2 percent increase in the gross receipts tax. The union feels that GFT’s VIP bill could save the government money as well. The bill, according to GFT, repeals all existing tax breaks for businesses.
“Our Legislature has decided that it would be better to cut 20 percent from a single mother making $9 per hour than 2 percent of a company’s profit,” Rector said. “We hope that our governor will make families a priority and veto this devastating bill.”
Camacho is off-island and has yet to review the bill. It is not known when Camacho will return. He is currently in Washington, D.C. attending a Pacific Island Leadership Conference, which will end this week.