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Results speak louder than rhetoric. The Leon Guerrero-Tenorio administration is the first administration to completely eliminate the deficit without borrowing. Not only has this administration’s fiscal policies resulted in eliminating the deficit in 2021 during the worst public health and economic crisis of our lifetime, it has also resulted in creating multiple surpluses at the end of fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021. For fiscal year 2022, there was a significant excess of collections over revenue projections and the legislature has amended the budget for FY 2023 in only the second quarter of this fiscal year to adopt higher revenue levels and to increase appropriations. Out of these increased appropriations an additional $20 million has been given to the Department of Education to fix its facilities. All of this $20 million is a result of sound fiscal policy.
Two of the Governor’s directors who are at the center of political attacks by lawmakers are responsible for executing the governor’s fiscal policy and managing cash on a daily basis. This cash management has resulted in the payment of tax refunds faster than any prior administration.
In other administrations and legislatures, governors and senators have given raises to unclassified employees. The difference now is Governor Leon Guerrero is giving raises during a time of unprecedented fiscal strength within the government. The difference is Governor Leon Guerrero also adopted a General Pay Plan to ensure that employees across the board get the pay that they deserve—pay that is warranted by results.
In its first term, our administration promised to eliminate our deficit, pay tax refunds in days not months, and give raises to nurses, teachers, and law enforcement. Despite a global pandemic, we delivered on these promises and achieved annual surpluses long before federal pandemic aid was received. This success now means that employees under the General Pay Plan will see significant raises for the first time in nearly a decade this Friday.
That took a team effort. And keeping that momentum for the next four years means that we will pay competitive wages as required by statute.
We can always do better. And there will always be urgent problems that demand our attention, but if serving our government means you can’t ever get a raise, no matter what you accomplish, then we are truly making this about politics rather than performance.
Like our sister branch of government–the legislature, adjusting salaries or separating personnel between terms is both commonplace and expected. We wonder how often individual raises or contract increases are announced by the Committee on Rules or its leadership.
Adelup pay adjustments were funded by the Office of the Governor's Fiscal Year 2023 budget and required no additional appropriation.
As required by the Guam law, the staffing pattern for the Office of the Governor is posted quarterly on the Governor’s website at governor.guam.gov/staffing. These latest actions were available online for public viewing for nearly three weeks.
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