HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Lawmakers are looking to take back the $20 million that was transferred by the Leon Guerrero-Tenorio administration away from facilities maintenance at the Guam Department of Education.
Sen. Chris Duenas on Monday afternoon added a provision into the fiscal year 2024 budget act aimed at giving the $20 million back to GDOE so it can deal with fixing school campuses ravaged by Typhoon Mawar.
Lawmakers authorized the $20 million to be spent on GDOE school repair before the typhoon struck this year. But post-Mawar, senators authorized the governor to transfer up to $50 million toward typhoon recovery, and the $20 million was redirected from the school system. Although GDOE in June submitted a long list of typhoon-related requests to Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense, which is handling the spending of the cash on Mawar response, school officials this week said they continue to wait for a majority of fixes, including mold mitigation, as the school year is set to begin Aug. 23.
GDOE also is weighing the possibility of cutting contracts, hiring and work hours as it deals with a budget for fiscal 2024 that’s about $48 million short of what it asked for – and at least $21 million short of what’s needed just to keep power and water bills paid. Franklin Cooper-Nurse, deputy superintendent of education for finance at GDOE, said Monday that the school system would like its funds returned.
Duenas’ amendment to the budget act would allow the $20 million that was authorized for campus repair this fiscal year to roll over until it is fully expended.
“For some reason, there seems to have been an identification of this $20 million as part of different funds sources for the response to the recovery. However, many of us feel in the body here that there continues to be a significant need and requirement for this full appropriation to be realized by (the) Department of Education,” Duenas told his colleagues.
“We want to ensure that if there is no ability to expend this money in the balance of this fiscal year, that it simply is identified and carried forward to next fiscal year.”
Duenas’ amendment was reworked after Speaker Therese Terlaje raised a concern with one section that would prioritize typhoon spending reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to go toward school repair. Though FEMA will pay back up to 90% of typhoon spending – including the $20 million that was taken from the schools – the reimbursements could take a long time and be used as “some kind of excuse” to further delay payments to the schools.
“I don’t want to slow their progress. I want to make it go full steam ahead. They need this $20 million, and I think we need to do something more drastic than tell (GDOE) to wait forever (for) FEMA reimbursements,” the speaker said, noting that the government of Guam may see as much as $34 million more in excess tax collections this fiscal year, which could be used to pay out the sum.
But it will still be up to the administration to put the cash toward school repair, based on discussions on the session floor. Legislative Office of Finance and Budget Director Stephen Guerrero, responding to questioning from Sen. Telo Taitague, said the appropriation doesn’t mean the money has to be spent.
“Appropriations are authorization to spend money. If you don’t spend it, then it doesn’t mean that you’re in violation, you’re just given the opportunity to spend up to that appropriation level,” Guerrero said.
Taitague suggested the budget act should require the $20 million be spent before excess revenue from fiscal 2023 is paid out, but did not offer an amendment.
Duenas’ amendment passed without objection.
University of Guam short
As of Tuesday afternoon, there’s been no amendment put forward to increase the University of Guam budget, which will come in about $24.5 million short of the $42 million UOG leadership requested to keep up with critical operations and rising costs.
OFB’s Guerrero said the university will get $3 million more than what it received for fiscal 2023, adding, “like any other department, they’re requesting for whatever it is they need, but we can only give them so much.”
Though the increased budget request was billed as a way to stave off tuition hikes, UOG won’t be able to implement one any time soon. The law that earlier this year included UOG employees in a 22% general pay raise for GovGuam, at a cost of $1.1 million, also barred UOG from hiking tuition until September 2025. Tuition increases are the main tool used to keep up with increasing costs, such as utilities, and the move met with opposition from UOG leadership at the time.
Vice Speaker Tina Muña Barnes on Tuesday put forth a failed amendment to try to include $3.6 million for a faculty pay adjustment.
“I’m asking my colleagues to help support our university – our own university. If they were to be given the funding source that they have in everywhere else, in the national level or in other regions, I’m telling you we are giving them peanuts,” Barnes said.
Speaker Terlaje noted that UOG already had the full authority to implement any pay increase it wanted, stating, “If I was going to give them any more money, I would give it to them and let them decide the priorities and let them answer to the students.”
Pieces of a light tower are strewn across part of a parking lot Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023, at Southern High School in Sånta Rita-Sumai.
