by Mindy Aguon

Guam - While officials discuss the coming year budget, the Government of Guam is still behind when it comes to the revenues coming in since the start of Fiscal Year 2010. While there is some optimism that revenues will pick up in April and May, Rev & Tax Director Art Ilagan says as it stands now, the government is in the red.

For the first three months we've been showing negative numbers compared to the projected numbers that were forecasted for the year. We're about $13 million behind. "If there's not enough money what the budget office does is they withhold any further spending so each department has to cut on what they've been budgeted for," he said.

In the meantime, Rev & Tax expects to collect about $16-17 million in the next three months as real property taxes are due. The first increment is due February 20 and the second on April 20.