By Nestor Licanto
For Variety
HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The government of Guam closed out fiscal year 2025 with a $90.2 million surplus, according to the monthly Consolidated Revenue and Expenditure Report, or CRER, released Monday by the Bureau of Budget and Management Research.
The report shows that as of Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, the actual total revenues collected were $1.08 billion, or $90.2 million more than the adopted revenues of $994.8 million.
This also represents a $16.0 million rise from the $74.2 million surplus that the general fund was tracking in the previous month of August.
Total income taxes collected through September were $584.9 million, a $76.7 million increase over the adopted income tax revenue for the fiscal year of $508.2 million.
Business privilege tax collections came in at $408.8 million, or some $8.5 million more than the projected revenue of $400.2 million at the end of the fiscal year.
Notably, under the fiscal year 2026 budget law, business privilege taxes will now be reduced by a half-point starting this month, from 5% to 4.5%. The BPT will be reduced by another half-point to 4.0% beginning in fiscal year 2027.
The BPT rollback was the subject of highly contentious debate during the legislative budget session in August. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero initially vetoed the spending measure, citing the negative impacts of the tax reduction on future spending for government programs and services.
But the Legislature overrode the veto by an 11 to 4 vote. The new Republican majority, joined by two Democrats, sided with the business community, led by the Guam Chamber of Commerce. They had lobbied that the 2018 BPT increase was supposed to be temporary, and a rollback was needed to help businesses that are still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and the effects of Typhoon Mawar.
The FY26 budget act also contained $34.5 million in appropriations from the general fund “without amendments to the adopted FY25 revenue level,” which means they will also be drawn against the surplus. They include $16.3 million for debt service for the Simon Sanchez High School construction project and $10 million for the government of Guam Rainy Day Fund.
The CRER also notes that $15.3 million of the projected surplus revenue was previously appropriated by the Legislature. This included $9.0 million to the Chamorro Land Trust Commission for surveying and infrastructure for CLTC lots and $5.75 million to the University of Guam to cover budget shortfalls.
There was also a shortfall in special revenue fund accounts of $7.2 million that required general fund coverage. Specifically, $5.7 million for the Tourist Attraction Fund, $1.09 million for the Healthy Futures Fund, and $425,000 for the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency Inspection Fund.
As a result, according to the CRER, the net unobligated projected FY25 general fund revenue sits at $33 million.
