Guam – Senator Ben Pangelinan told the Association of Government Accountants today that the state of GovGuam finances is not as bleak as the administration has made it out to be.
Pangelinan said this today during a speech on the state of GovGuam finances. According to the legislative budget chairman, after the first quarter of this fiscal year GovGuam is a little over 541 thousand dollars below it’s projected revenues. He says based on this number the government is not tracking a shortfall that is unmanageable. “I’ve been barraged with press releases from the Calvo administration saying the sky is falling and the sky is falling and of course the professionals that deal with government finance such as yourselves know that we are struggling but have the knowledge the skills and ability to manage this situation. I don’t think we should pull the panic button at this time,” said Pangelinan adding, “but to run around and I think say that we are going to be in a financial crisis of a 120 million dollar shortfall is a little irresponsible given where we’re at today with regards to the revenue collections that we see and the plans contained in the budget to deal with some of these issues.”
Senator Pangelinan says that based on current revenue projections and the rising tourism trends GovGuam should collect close to the amount of money that they have based their budget on.
