Hafa Adai!
 
In this week’s address to the people of Guam, Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo talks about the promises the Calvo Tenorio administration was able to keep because GovGuam finances was a priority. The address was taped last week Friday.
 
Here’s the link to watch Governor Calvo’s weekly address – CLICK HERE.
 
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WATCH, READ & LISTEN: Calvo manages finances; makes good on promises
By: Eddie Baza Calvo
 
 
Hafa Adai my family and friends.
 
This has been a busy week, but there are a lot of good things going on.
 
First, if you haven’t already heard, the tax refund payments for Status A returns filed up to September 30th will be paid out today.
 
That’s the fastest we’ve paid out tax refunds in 20 years.
 
Our fiscal team has worked really hard to make this a reality and I’d really like to thank them.
 
When we first came into office, we were looking at a $300M deficit and people were waiting for their tax refunds for years.
 
I remember in 2011, when we were able to pay thousands of people their tax refunds some folks were even crying as they picked up their refunds because they had waited for so so long. Too long.
 
One of the goals in my administration was to get our finances in order so that we could pay out these tax refunds.
 
Now my opponent complains about this detail or that, regarding the tax refund payments.
 
My questions to him is, how many times did he pay out those tax refunds on time? Never.
 
It was hard work, but we’ve been able to improve our finances so that we could make good on tax refunds and other promises.
 
Some of those include, the Hay Pay for thousands of GovGuam employees, increased COLA checks for our retirees, paying our public safety officers the wage increases that they were promised years ago, and more.
 
Speaking of COLA checks, earlier this week I had ordered the Department of Administration to payout about $15M to government retirees.
 
Now it’s a little bit early and by law it’s not supposed to be paid until November 1st, but in previous years administrators waited until the last minute to pay these because of a cash problem.
 
Well we’ve managed the finances well… we didn’t have to wait to the last minute. Our ma’namko deserve more than just last minute respect.
 
At the beginning of the week I also called the legislature into session to discuss Bill 415, which was introduced on Monday.
 
The point of calling the Legislature into an emergency session was to ensure our Guam Police Department, Department of Corrections, and Guam Fire Department personnel are all paid the overtime that they’ve earned.
 
Now this bill isn’t an unfunded mandate. It’s a bill I made certain had real money attached to it because I don’t want this to be an empty promise.
 
Nothing makes me happier than knowing that I’ve served the people who trust me to be their leader.
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