NEWS: Politics prevails over sound public policy
Despite attempts to bring government pay scales in line with the national average, 10 senators voted to undo this and bring government pay scales back to 1994 levels. Guam’s elected officials now make below the national average of all U.S. territorial governments, saving the government of Guam less than .00007% of over the overall budget.
“Today, Frank Aguon was successful in creating an inefficient government system and executive branch, in which the subordinate is paid more than the chief executive and the mayor is paid more than the legislator. While this has made for great politics, it has made for poor public policy, and demonstrates a lack of executive experience,” the Governor said.
We now have a lopsided government where salaries at the autonomous agencies and Judiciary are misaligned with the rest of government. These entities have commissioned and implemented wage studies, without the interference of politics such as this.
“I remain concerned that by reducing the pay for senators, voters are now limited in the amount qualified Guamanians who will seek elected office. In the end, this will translate into less qualified candidates running for this office, which will result in less choices for our voters in the voting booth next fall. This will diminish the caliber of leadership at the legislature. The only way to mitigate this concern would be to look closely now to the merits of a part-time Legislature.”
Three Republican Governors asked senators not to tamper with an independent third-party wage study. We thank the four Republican senators and one Democrat senator who were able see the bigger picture, beyond the politics.
Governor Calvo stated: “Though I’m clearly disappointed, we can finally be rid of this longstanding diversion and get back to the business of governance.”
