by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - The governor doesn't see any major issues with signing the Fiscal Year 2013 budget bill into law but he stresses that lawmakers will need to begin addressing his proposed spending cuts bill to start chipping away at the deficit and reduce government spending. Governor Eddie Calvo took issue with the education board's recent decision to grant increments to DOE workers, saying he'd love to give pay raises and increments.

"But when we're dealing with a $100 million deficit, I think it's inexcusable for these folks to make these empty promises to our teachers. I believe it was very irresponsible and I do believe someone from the Department of Education, owes those teachers, all those DOE workers an apology for all these false and empty promises that they were making," the island's chief executive explained.

The governor couldn't say when he might sign the bill, but says he doesn't intend to slow down the process and will meet with his fiscal policy team to get an analysis and evaluation from them. Meanwhile he encourages the Guam Legislature to start working on his spending cuts bill.