HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Each of the 15 members of the Guam Legislature will get another $20,000 to run their senatorial offices in the upcoming fiscal year.
The collective $300,000 increase for senatorial offices is part of an increase of just over $900,000 to the Legislature’s budget in the proposed fiscal 2024 budget act. The total proposed budget for the Legislature’s operations is about $9 million.
Sen. Joanne Brown questioned the increase during budget talks this week.
“The last few years, I just want to note, I mean, the legislative budget has increased over several million dollars in that time frame,” Brown said.
“We are cutting other areas that we’re seeing. There are other critical areas in this government that support our people directly that we’re not funding, but we’re certainly making sure we take care of ourselves – and that, to me, is not leadership.”
The budget act passed for fiscal 2020 provided a little over $8 million for legislative operations, while just $7.6 million was appropriated in fiscal 2021, when shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic dropped local tax revenues.
Brown asked legislative Office of Finance and Budget Director Stephen Guerrero why the $20,000 was tacked on, saying, “I’m sure I didn’t ask for it.”
“The only thing I can (say) to your question,” Guerrero replied, “is that in conversations I had with several people in the Legislature, it was requested that the $20,000 be added to the budget. … We also did the same thing last year. … So we also increased (it) last year by the same amount.”
Sen. Tom Fisher joined Brown in opposing the increase.
“I think we can all do without,” he said. “We didn’t ask for it, so we don’t need it.”
Fisher, who has been lobbying to get legislative central office staff paid for their overtime work instead of receiving compensatory time off, said the money could be better put to that purpose.
“That seems like a likely source of money to actually pay people for their labor,” he said.
‘The ghost is gone’
Both Fisher and Democrat Sen. Chris Barnett asked that senators be able to discuss the Legislature’s budget, including any amendments, but budget Chair Sen. Joe San Agustin blocked the move.
San Agustin said he had closed the chapter of the budget act that dealt with the Legislature’s budget, and that senators had not introduced any amendments on time.
“When we start the chapter, if you have an amendment, we entertain it,” San Agustin said. “If not, we go to comments. If not, we close it. We did that. You were the last one to comment. If we’re always trying to reach out to the ghost, forget it. The ghost is gone.”
Brown introduced an amendment to cut funding for the Legislature by $300,000 – the equivalent of the extra $20,000 for all 15 senators – and instead push the money into the Rainy Day Fund.
Speaker Therese Terlaje also tried to amend the chapter to secure $400,000 to replace the Legislature’s air-conditioning system.
San Agustin ruled both out of order, and neither Terlaje nor Brown were allowed to speak on their proposals.
An attempt to challenge San Agustin’s ruling failed, with only Sens. Brown, Frank Blas Jr., Chris Duenas, Jesse Lujan and Telo Taitague supporting the move.
Additional costs
According to Guerrero, additional costs for the Legislature in fiscal 2024 include:
• $166,000 to create an additional legislative committee.
• $125,000 to demolish the old speaker’s office.
• $20,000 to replace an old server.
• $20,000 to replace speakers in the public hearing room.
• $20,000 for an Office 360 Business Premium annual license.
• $7,920 for an Adobe Acrobat license.
• $250,000 for a new commercial air-conditioning system for the Guam Congress Building, which is worth only half of the new system.
Tom Fisher
Joanne Brown
Joe San Agustin
