by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Governor Eddie Calvo delivered his third State of the Island Address Monday night, highlighting the halfway mark of his term in office. And in addition to saying the state of the government is better than it's been in 20 years, Calvo made two big announcements that one the deficit is gone and that it's high time Guam takes the fight to the feds.

"My dear people, the state of the island is in a new era of ascendancy," announced the island's chief executive. And with that Calvo delivered his third address, saying he is committed to making commonplace what was once considered extraordinary. From calling it a banner year in education to improvements to the Chamorro Land Trust Commission, it was at half-way through his speech and in his term Calvo made the announcement that received a standing ovation.

"Tonight I have the distinct honor of being the first governor in 23 years to tell you that the deficit is gone," he said.

Even better, he added there's a $10 million surplus. Governor Calvo said it wasn't rocket science or a miracle but that his administration was able to eliminate the $500 million deficit the way any family pays its bills - by holding the line on spending, tightening our belts and instituting a 15% reserve.

So what did Committee on Finance and Appropriations chair, Senator Ben Pangelinan, think of Calvo's announcement? "Imagine that. That's my statement: imagine that," he said.

Democratic Party of Guam chairman Carlo Branch meanwhile immediately put out a release criticizing the announcement. "I think if it's not factually incorrect, it's definitely a misstatement," he said.

He adds under Calvo's leadership, the debt your children will owe has grown by more than $300 million, further telling KUAM that all Calvo has done is change the deficit into long-term debt. "So if you're going to shift our single year deficit into a long-term debt, maybe you shouldn't be so tongue-in-cheek about it," he said.

The governor's director of communications, Troy Torres, refuted those statements, saying, "Sure, part of it was the restructuring of the short-term into long-term debt, but a lot of it was also sticking to the 15% reserve, cutting back on spending, doing what is financially responsible in the Government of Guam in order to eliminate the deficit."

But saying the deficit was gone wasn't the only attention-grabber, so was his criticism of the federal government for its myriad of unfunded mandates. "You can do down the gamut of issues where the federal government has hampered our progress with unfunded mandates and then punishes us for not being able to pay for those mandates from our general funds," he said.

He mentioned areas such as Earned Income Tax Credit, wastewater treatment, the prison and Obamacare adding and how the feds repeatedly have sued Guam to provide services to cover their unfunded mandates. "I think it's high time that Guam take the fight to the feds," he said. "I will not leave any stone unturned, even if that means suing the federal government to unshackle us from some of these mandates."

While she says the devil is in the details in regards to the deficit being gone, she did find the governor's call for a new approach a fascinating concept saying there's been some unsuccessful attempts. "I think in this case if it's the Government of Guam that it might be a little different, so I look forward and watching very closely how that's going to go," he said.

Majority Leader Rory Respicio meanwhile once again called on the governor to reconvene the Guam First Commission in order to work together along with Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo to address the concerns of our territorial relationship with the feds. "And areas of Compact impact, areas of those unfunded federal mandates that we really have to be able to come together and in one strong voice communicate to the federal government some of the things they can do to alleviate the financial pressures that we have," he said.
Calvo meanwhile did indicate that he plans to travel to Washington, DC in the near future to continue dialogue with the feds on several issues including the China visa waiver and the impact of Obamacare to Guam, which he said is a $27 million unfunded mandate.

Moving forward, Calvo says as long as he's governor, he will pay your tax refunds on time - something he says will be done two years in the row. And just as tax refunds are current, he notes there's only $18 million in the refund reserve account and wants to build that to its maximum along with building a meaningful rainy day fund.