Guam lawmaker says governor bundled policy changes into budget; moves to adjourn special session

Senator Jesus Massey on the floor of a Guam Legislature special session sharply criticized the governor's budget transmittal as containing substantive policy changes hidden inside a Business Privilege Tax (BPT) measure and moved to adjourn the session.

The move followed a lengthy statement by Massey, who told colleagues that the governor’s proposal goes well beyond a tax-rate decision and, he said, “rewrites laws that were never vetted nor debated.” He identified provisions he said were embedded in the transmittal, including authorization for a new police headquarters, a sports field in Tiedzin, changes to how the Guam Department of Education is treated under the Central Accounting Act, higher procurement thresholds requiring attorney general review, and multi‑year extensions of health insurance contracts.

Massey argued the changes were presented without the strikethroughs and underlines required by the Legislature’s rules, a practice he said “hides changes from the public.” He said the governor’s submission was a “quasi clean version…