By Eric Rosario
In a stunning rebuke of the half truths told by the governor's fiscal team to senators, Sen. Therese Terlaje spent 10 minutes on the floor of the Legislature lambasting the fiscal team with facts and figures. Her oratory arguably led to the defeat of the governor's new budget proposal.
The senator, who has spent the past year trying to direct more funding to the Department of Public Health and Social Services, and to Guam Memorial Hospital, asked budget director Lester Carlson and cash director Ed Birn that if DPHSS and GMH were so important to the governor:
Where were they when she tried to dedicate more funding to both agencies?
Where is the $10 million appropriated from her Bill No. 36 to GMH that never made it to GMH?
Will the governor be releasing lapses the Legislature allowed her to use for DPHSS?
Will she cut spending in areas not as important as health care so she can fund these two agencies?
Will she use her authority to transfer up to $27 million into GMH and DPHSS?
Why in the heck didn't she use more of the $117 million in CARES Act Direct Aid funding toward GMH and DPHSS?
Watch the senator's impassioned speech below:
Its time those who have an income step up for those who don't have an income. Senators should lay on the Guam Income Tax the 10% surcharge allowed by the Organic Act. 'If not now, when?'