by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Governor Eddie Calvo has submitted the budget for Fiscal Year 2015. The budget plan invests in sustainability of the growing economy along with increasing revenues in public schools, healthcare and safety.

Before backing out of the payments of debt service, the budget proposes $863.8 million in total revenue projections. Among the other highlights including:

$401 million for operations of the line agencies and several other services including textbooks, MIP, Medicaid matching, hospital funding, hiring of police and other public safety officers
$118 million for Tax Year 2014 tax refunds
$20 million in total additional appropriation for personnel costs inclusive of benefits resulting from the hay pay raises. The Governor's Office notes that included in this estimate but not reflected in the budget submission is the Department of Education portion, which has been factored into DOE's separate budget request. There is an additional estimated $5 million appropriation pool to cover the increased amounts resulting from changes to the 2010 Hay plan.
$5 million additional appropriation to DOE for universal Pre-K and two incentive programs for teachers
$500,000 additional appropriation to public health to expand hot meals service to senior citizens on Sunday

The Governor's Office along with his fiscal team will be provide more details of the budget plan Monday at 2pm.