by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - Freshmen Republican senators Michael Limtiaco and Brant McCreadie have teamed up to introduce Bill 30 which reduces senators' salaries to $55,307 a year. It was in February 2011 senators salaries went up to $60,000 a year after they implemented an old law which raised their salaries to be 50 percent of the annual salary of a superior court judge with the speaker to receive 50 percent of the presiding judge's salaries. When they adjusted their salaries at that time they also received retroactive checks of about five to $6,000 each.

Senator Limtiaco said, "It's something I campaigned and talked about during the election and it's something that I feel got me elected and I feel it's something that resonated with our people, and I feel that leading by example when we go into the budget talks in the coming year for our new budget we're going to need to make tough decisions, and this is one tough decision that we'll have to make so we can all lead by example."

Senator McCreadie added, "So at a time when real estate market is down, when we have a budget that doesn't really pay for the payables or receivable I think this the time is now to send the message that we're willing to do what it takes to move this government forward."

Both senators say cutting senators salaries is not anything new since it was recently introduced as a provision in Bill 543. You may remember lawmakers in the 31st Guam Legislature ended up removing it from the legislation.