by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - It was last week we told which of your senators from the last Guam Legislature were getting annual leave checks and how much. And they, along with staff at the Legislature, got paid.

It was last week when Speaker Judi Won Pat said there was no funding appropriated for this fiscal year to allow senators along with employees at the Guam Legislature to cash out on annual leave payments. "You won't see that happening until there is that funding source," said the speaker previously. Less than a week since that interview aired on KUAM News, Legislature Executive Director Vince Arriola says there's a funding source.

"Today we released checks that cover the annual leave lump sum payments for the employees of the Legislature, including senators, that were for the 31st Guam Legislature term ,"he explained. The payments amount to $431,000 - $316,000 of which will go to legislative staff, and as we reported last week $115,000 to pay senators.

Won Pat is set to receive $10,400 whereas eight senators will be receiving $9,360 including Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz, Tina Rose Muna Barnes, Frank Blas Jr., Rory Respicio, Judi Guthertz, Adolpho Palacios, Tom Ada and Aline Yamashita. Other senators are owed slightly lower amount including Senator Tony Ada, set to receive $5,762, Senator Dennis Rodriguez with $5,148, Senator Sam Mabini with $8,628 and Senator Mana Silva Taijeron with $6,084.

Only two out of 15 senators won't be cashing out including Senators Ben Pangelinan and Chris Duenas.

He says while senators are entitled to cashing out, he doesn't agree with it adding he even used it as a funding source for his bucks for busses bill introduced last year. "I've been on record, not agreeing with the cash pay out to begin with, so what I did was submit adequate leave to ensure that I wouldn't get any pay out. I didn't take all that leave, but what I did was ensure that I put in everything that would result in me in getting no cash out at all," he said.

So where did the money come from? Arriola says the funding came from the existing legislative funds using the Legislature's current year budget, noting, "And I believe when (Won Pat) said that there was no money, no direct appropriations, so we're using current funds right now. That means we're going to further tighten our belt, we're going to have to be more lean and mean, more efficient in how we handle our financial resources and cut back as much as we can."

Arriola says the Legislature's budget for this current fiscal year is a little over $7 million. And while this is a routine practice at the end of terms for elected officials and unclassified staff authorized by law, it will be the last for senators as Governor Eddie Calvo signed Bill 543 into law repealing annual leave benefits not only for lawmakers but the governor and lieutenant governor.