Low turnout during roundtable
It was low-to-almost-no turnout to last night's roundtable discussion scheduled for nurses and representatives from the Guam Guard and Reserves to testify on the governor's spending cuts bill.
By KUAM NewsGuam - It was low-to-almost-no turnout to last night's roundtable discussion scheduled for nurses and representatives from the Guam Guard and Reserves to testify on the governor's spending cuts bill. Mark Calvo, the head of the Guam Buildup Office and special assistant to the governor on military affairs testified in support of Bill 507. The measure would discontinue the practice of leave sharing for military members who are deployed and instead limit the leave sharing for medical purposes only, according to Calvo the numbers indicate that some 350-thousand dollars annually had been used for leave sharing.
"From my soldier perspective this is icing and I know soldiers and airmen in the Guard and Reserves would agree that oh what a great thing we get a federal paycheck and a Government of Guam paycheck as if we're not even on leave. 3520 but from someone else's perspective they may see this as rather an inconvenience rather than an entitlement I mean icing an entitlement."
Calvo testified that in most cases when a service member is deployed, they see an increase in pay and receive several entitlements to ensure their families are taken care of on the homefront.