{"id":234605,"date":"2016-08-19T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T20:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=234605"},"modified":"2016-08-19T06:00:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T20:00:57","slug":"proposed-guam-fy-17-budget-now-available-ofb-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/proposed-guam-fy-17-budget-now-available-ofb-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed Guam FY \u201917 budget now available on OFB website"},"content":{"rendered":"

GUAM<\/strong>\u2014Following a series of comprehensive budget hearings held over the course of two months, appropriations chair Vice Speaker Benjamin J.F. Cruz filed Tuesday a substitute budget bill, unveiling a fiscal plan far different from Gov. Eddie Calvo\u2019s Fiscal Year 2017 Executive Budget Request. <\/p>\n

Unlike the governor\u2019s aggressive revenue projections for the upcoming fiscal year, Cruz\u2019s 2017 \u201cCut, Cap, and Balance Plan\u201d responsibly cuts $55 million in newly proposed spending without jeopardizing current operations, lowers the cap on GovGuam\u2019s debt ceiling, and commits to a balanced budget based on conservative revenue estimates and expenditures.<\/p>\n

While the budget request originally proposed by Calvo projected exceptional economic growth, Cruz\u2019s substitute budget bill reflects realistic revenue projections and \u201cmoderate growth\u201d\u2014as forecasted by Guam\u2019s economic experts before the Committee on Appropriations earlier this month. Given the General Fund\u2019s cumulative deficit of nearly $120 million, Cruz notes that continued conservatism is necessary\u2014resulting in decreasing the Governor\u2019s proposed General Fund revenues available for appropriation from $736.4 million to $681.2 million, or $55.2 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny budget that plans to spend more money than we can actually collect makes a promise we can\u2019t keep, and I think we all have had enough of that,\u201d said Cruz, who filed Substitute Bill No. 250-33 (COR) (SB250) Tuesday afternoon. \u201cTaxpayers deserve a budget that makes sense, and that can\u2019t happen if we rely on revenue projections that seem to make things up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite numerous budget requests above the appropriation levels originally presented in the governor\u2019s FY 2017 EBR, Cruz\u2019s proposal ensures that all agencies are provided with adequate funding to cover existing personnel and maintain status quo operations. Moreover, SB250 provides Calvo with extraordinary flexibility through both a lump sum budget and expanded transfer authority to address any unforeseen circumstances throughout the course of the coming fiscal year.<\/p>\n

To protect future revenues from the crushing weight of new annual debt payments, Cruz\u2019s measure also lowers the cap on GovGuam\u2019s debt ceiling. With public debt at over $1.525 billion, the inclusion of Chapter 14 in SB250 reduces the government of Guam\u2019s debt ceiling\u2014established by the Organic Act of Guam at 10 percent of the total assessed value of taxable real property\u2014by redefining the assessed value from 100 percent to 90 percent of the appraised value. The chapter further ensures transparency in any future borrowing legislation by prohibiting the inclusion of language authorizing adjustments to the debt ceiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery dollar we borrow needlessly today is a debt our children and grandchildren owe to someone else tomorrow,\u201d said Cruz. \u201cThat keeps me up at night and it\u2019s up to us to say \u2018no more.\u2019\u201d (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GUAM\u2014Following a series of comprehensive budget hearings held over the course of two months, appropriations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13024,12023,51,13025],"class_list":["post-234605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-executive-budget-request","tag-general-fund","tag-guam","tag-ofb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}