HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — After facing a setback Thursday, an amendment to change the funding source for Bill 173-37 passed the Guam Legislature on Friday morning. The bill was also placed into the third reading file, setting the stage for lawmakers to vote on whether to pass the measure later in session.
Bill 173 seeks to extend the Prugråman Ayuda Para I Taotao-ta Energy Credit Program another three months, from October through December.
As introduced, the bill would have taken $15.8 million from fiscal year 2023 general fund excess to support the extension. But the Legislature appropriated all fiscal 2023 excess to the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority through a recently enacted bailout measure, now known as Public Law 37-43.
Lawmakers spent much of Thursday speaking with government finance officials as they attempted to find a new funding source for the credit extension. Speaker Therese Terlaje, the author of Bill 173, ultimately suggested changing the source to just “the general fund,” with no specification of fiscal year excess.
Terlaje reasoned that funding is available through Medicaid reimbursements that are sitting unspent in the general fund.
The speaker was unable to convince enough of her colleagues, however. Several senators were absent Thursday, and only seven lawmakers – the speaker included – voted to push the amendment through, falling one vote short of the eight needed to pass the measure. But that didn’t mark the end of Bill 173, as the Legislature returned Friday to continue discussions.
Lawmakers differed on whether funding was actually available.
Sen. Telo Taitague, who supported Terlaje’s amendment, said it depended on who you ask.
“There is money. The governor will find it, just like she does for her pet projects. Well, this is not a pet project. This is to help the people of Guam, our people, who are hurting. And let the governor find that money, that’s all this bill does. It gives her the authority to go into the general fund and find that money for the people of Guam, who need it the most,” Taitague said Friday.
Sen. Thomas Fisher said lawmakers were told “very, very clearly” Thursday that there is no money for the extension.
“No matter what the amount of wishing and hoping and magical thinking that we engage in, it’s not going to produce the money that’s necessary for this. We cannot spend what we don’t have. And it doesn’t do anyone any good to try and fool people into thinking we can afford this when we simply cannot,” Fisher said.
Sen. Chris Duenas also noted Friday that the Office of Finance and Budget and the Bureau of Budget and Management Research “clearly put it on the record” Thursday that “there (are) no funds for this, that there are insufficient funds for this.”
“Even though we had dialogue back and forth and there were some comments to the level of the possibility of the funding being there, we have never been able to identify the funding,” Duenas said, later recommending that Bill 173 be returned to committee until funding is shown to be available.
Despite some lingering concerns and opposition, the amendment was ultimately adopted Friday.
Sens. Chris Barnett, Sabina Perez, Joe San Agustin, Dwayne San Nicolas and Amanda Shelton, as well as Vice Speaker Tina Muña Barnes, joined Taitague and Terlaje in passing the amendment on reconsideration.
Duenas and Fisher voted against the amendment alongside Sens. Frank Blas Jr., Joanne Brown and Jesse Lujan.
Sens. William Parkinson and Roy Quinata were absent and excused from voting.
The speaker offered some clarifications after her amendment passed, noting that there was “a lot of confusion on the floor” with OFB and BBMR “coming in here and saying there’s no funds.”
“We ensured that no more general funds would be taken for Typhoon Mawar expenditures after September and we put the entire Rainy Day Fund available to the governor for Typhoon Mawar. Instead of the Rainy Day Fund, BBMR testified that they took a $16 million reimbursement from Medicaid, that we were not expecting, and set that aside for Typhoon Mawar. They have not spent that $16 million yet. This is the source of funding that we are using … It’s in the general fund and that’s why our bill now says (the) general fund is the source,” Terlaje added.
The speaker said BBMR testified that Guam is expecting another $18 million in Medicaid reimbursements.
“I really believe, my colleagues, you can feel comfortable that we have set in place by policy, … use the Rainy Day Fund for the typhoon, as dictated by law. Medicaid reimbursements go into the general fund, and those are available for us to appropriate. That is $16 million. It’s enough to meet the $15 million needed for just a three-month extension on this credit. And I agree with my colleagues as to we need a permanent way for (the Guam Power Authority) to make this cost of power sustainable for the people of Guam,” Terlaje said.
Speaker Therese Terlaje, right, discusses Bill 173-37 with Sen. Chris “Malafunkshun” Barnett during a regular session at the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.
Sen. Telo Taitague is seen during a regular session at the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.
Sens. Tom Fisher, left, and Jesse A. Lujan converse during a regular session at the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.
Members of the 37th Guam Legislature hold a regular session at the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.
