Public Auditor says GovGuam overspending & Trump tax cuts require immediate action

Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks spoke to the Rotary Club of Guam today(Thurs) about GovGuam’s spending habits and the Trump tax plan that will reduce GovGuam’s revenues.

Guam – is 3rd amongst the territories for the highest debt to Gross Domestic Product(GDP) ratio. The Public Auditor told the Rotary Club of Guam today that Guam’s debt to GDP ratio is now at 48%.

So where does all the debt come from? Well the largest portion of the over 2 billion dollars worth of GovGuam debt is from bond borrowing. “We have 1.2 billion dollars of bonded debt and that is the debt we use to pay for operations and I’ll be talking about that. Pay for the landfill, that’s the biggest one. That’s about $270 million dollars and a few other operations,” said Brooks.

The Public Auditor says we often get debt to pay off operating deficits. She says the last major bond borrowing effort was the $300 million used to pay off tax refunds. “We over expend, we over expend and then we get debt to pay for those over expenditures. We over expend, we over expend and then we get debt to pay for those over expenditures,” said Brooks.

The Public Auditor says this has been the pattern for GovGuam over the last 20 years. “It’s kind of like you getting a mortgage to pay off your credit card. And that’s what we’ve done but we still have to pay that and that’s how we’ve accumulated this $1.2 billion dollars in bonded debt,” said Brooks.

Read more: http://pacificnewscenter.com/public-auditor-says-govguam-overspending-trump-tax-cuts-require-immediate-action/