This morning I drove by the Harmon Loop Road – McDonald’s intersection and said to my mother in law, “I feel so bad for these people.” On the grassy easement near McDonald’s was a man helping the beggar woman without legs. A few paces down an older beggar appeared to be taking a break from asking passersby for money.
My mother in law, who lived most her life dirt poor in the Philippines and Saipan, asked me, “How come the government don’t do something here?”
It was a poignant question, not just because of the growing poverty in our island, but because it’s election time and the promisemakers are out there making their promises to appeal to what it is they think we will respond to most at the ballot box. For years, that answer has been simple: We the people need to make more money to support ourselves, and we have to get this meth epidemic under control or we’re going to see more families wrecked, people homeless, and mental health deteriorate.
So, how effective have senators been at addressing these priorities?
Senators have different duties, but arguably their most important is to look at the limited resources of the government (mainly the taxes we pay), and budget out those monies each year. Therefore, how much senators give to one program over another is a direct testimony of the priorities they place on issues.
In the latest budget (for Fiscal Year 2025, which begins October 1, 2024), the legislature’s top priority is clear and unchanged from every legislature before it: GovGuam salaries. No bullshit. No hyperbole. Numbers only: Senators prioritized GovGuam salaries over the meth epidemic, crime, education, homelessness, and economic opportunity outside government service.
If homelessness was a priority, senators would have prioritized local taxes to fund dwellings for homeless people. If they cared about that beggar woman without legs and the hundreds more on the streets suffering from physical and mental disabilities, they would have funded something for them.
If the meth epidemic was a priority to senators, they would have funded more social workers and a program for those social workers and program managers to perform inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services.
If economic opportunity for the poor was a priority, they would have locally funded a vibrant and reliable transportation system that could get thousands of people to and from work, their homes, doctor’s appointments, and more.
If education was a priority, gosh, where do I even start? Facilities? Supplies? Maintenance? Not shorting Guam Department of Education $40 million?
So, when news this week that senators placed on the agenda a bill that actually will prioritize both affordable homeownership and the lowering of power bills, I thought, “FINALLY! FINALLY, SENATORS PRIORITIZED US!”
(This is not to say that other important matters haven’t been passed by this legislature. Chris Duenas’ septic reform legislation – though pared down from the game changer it could have been – is going to help to bring down the cost of housing.)
But, Joe San Agustin’s Bill No. 179 that will authorize the current Guam International Country Club golf course leaseholders to transform that land’s use into a solar farm is going to jumpstart the Chamorro Land Trust, bring thousands more people closer to the dream of homeownership, and lower all of our power bills. In a nutshell, if this bill passes, the GICC leaseholder will front 30 years worth of rent at $9 million. The Chamorro Land Trust Commission will then finance that $9 million through federal loan programming and get us an estimated $30 million that will be used to survey CLTC properties and construct power, water, and sewer infrastructure on thousands of lots.
But that isn’t all. Once GICC invests millions into the economy by constructing the largest solar farm on the island and sells that electricity to Guam Power Authority, GPA will be able to lower our power rates.
It gets better. As part of the deal, the current GICC clubhouse will be transformed into the new permanent headquarters of the Department of Land Management, CLTC, and Ancestral Lands Commission, saving the taxpayers millions of dollars in future rent that currently is paid to the ITC Building.
For whatever reason (my guess is political rivalry and silliness among senators), a couple of senators opposed the effort to allow all 15 senators to debate this bill on the floor this month, even though this bill has been scrutinized far more and for far longer than most legislation does. Fortunately, the objections of those couple of senators failed in the face of the desire of the majority of senators to prioritize what truly matters to us.
So, thank you Senators Joe San Agustin, Tina Muna Barnes, Amanda Shelton, Roy Quinata, Will Parkinson, Jesse Lujan, Chris Duenas, Tom Fisher, and Dwayne San Nicolas for casting your votes to have the full legislature debate this bill. Thank you to whichever other senator may be thinking of voting for this bill.
Senators are in session this week, and thanks to these nine, Bill 179 bill be debated and likely will pass. We’ll see. We’ll be watching. We’ll report to you how this all turns out.
Hopefully after this, the legislature can continue on a meaningful streak and: 1) cut taxes, 2) raise the minimum wage substantially, and 3) expand healthcare coverage.
One battle at a time.
7 Comments
Frenchie
09/26/2024 at 9:26 AM
This is without a doubt your most wrong headed, least researched, and racially biased piece, since you started your venture. Let see if you censure this answer, as you have done before. The legislature in this case is agreeing to modify a lease from a failed and dishonest commercial entity, which has failed to abide by its contract for years, with no consequences of any sort, coming from the agency supposedly in charge of managing this land for the benefit of Chamoru natives, namely the highly inept and corrupt CLTC.
Instead we are now supposed to trust an untrustworthy company, and dysfunctional agency generate a pie in the sky dream of benefits of millions of dollars to supposedly benefit an illegal housing scheme for the poors. If you read carefully the proposed amendment to said lease, you should notice easily the reoccurring use of “may” rather than “must”, in almost every amending article. A dead giveaway to any lawyer freshly out of the bar exam. This project puts at risk over 4000 housing units both ecologically and financially , which are surrounding the proposed industrial site, at an average of 3 persons by housing units, that represents around 12 thousands people who are mostly working poors leaving from paycheck to paycheck. This is what you call, killing the golden goose. If your assumed financial benefits to a solar farm in residential area were even half right, this would be a disaster. Using the poors as an advocacy to benefit a few corrupt politicians and their patrons is misleading and reprehensible
Tori 🌞🧙🍃✨ Manley
10/03/2024 at 9:50 AM
I was happy with what I was reading, thank you Frenchmen for advocating.
I was curious, why did all the senators that have never truly advocated for the working class, be advocating for a big energy equality project?
To replace a GOLF COURSE?!
Truly baffling, too good to be true.
Tori
10/03/2024 at 9:51 AM
I was happy with what I was reading, thank you Frenchmen for advocating.
I was curious, why did all the senators that have never truly advocated for the working class, be advocating for a big energy equality project?
To replace a GOLF COURSE?!
Truly baffling, too good to be true.
Barbara Burkhardt
09/26/2024 at 9:56 AM
Who pays you to write this BS, GICC? The poor people you see at the intersection will not benefit from this project. The proposed uses for the site that benefit the people are accessible recreation and housing. Yes accessible recreation. And its not about a municipal golf course. The only Limestone Forest left in the West and Center Northern Plateau is anchored by this site. With Dos Amantes razed and industrial, surrounding the new power plant, the only place left to cool our island will be the eastern clifflines, accessible only by car. “The paved paradise, put up a parking lot” In this case a solar farm in the middle of residential area.
Barbara Burkhardt
09/26/2024 at 10:00 AM
Second comment, the recent report by Director Benevente stats that we are track for 50% renewable energy and commissioning the new power plant by 2030. He is conservative and believes power surcharge will be reduced before 2030. This reduction brings our consumption of oil requirement from 3 million gallons to 1.3 – 1.4 million barrels. The solar farms have already been vetted by GPA to provide this metric. The GICC solar farm is not vetted and not part of the report. The developers of the GICC solar farm have not been vetted.
Frenchie
09/26/2024 at 4:50 PM
Dear Barbara,
You underline correctly the issue of the group solicited to develop the solar project, which in fact in a consortium made of two groups that do not particularly like each other. The real issue in this project, is the capacity to harvest federal funds from the green project, which shall benefit the current lease holders who are already in breach of their original contract as underlined by the Attorney General himself. Meanwhile it appears that the Vice speaker and several of her relatives currently employed in the Leon Guerrero/Tenorio administration have huge conflicts of interest in seeing this swindle of Guam taxpayers go through not for the benefit of poor Guam residents, but for the benefit of an handful of well connected insiders. Further, solar power, portrayed as a cheap alternative to fossil fuel, will keep utility prices at a high level for all Guam power users, which happens to include the tourist industry, still struggling to recover from the unilateral economical shutdown of our island during the pandemic. Last, but certainly not least, solar panels contain one of the most polluting item known to man: Cadmium Telluride, for which there are no remedial solution. Since we are in an area of inclement weather the risk of seeing the break of said panels by flying objects is very high. Why would anyone take the huge risk of irremedial pollution of our northern
watershed? This non sensible and extremely risky. Of course who will hold the bill for such an issue, and the slew of lawsuits by homeowners neighboring this industrial project ?
I guess once again the Guam taxpayers
Ti' Bisnesmu
09/27/2024 at 4:48 AM
Another waste of time and resources! It’s what Guam does best!