Guam's governor has set the record straight with village mayors over their share of American Rescue Plan funding - that's according to budget director Lester Carlson, who sat in on the regular quarterly meeting today. Carlson says the figures aired publicly earlier this week by Senator Jim Moylan and Congressman Michael San Nicolas weren't accurate.

"The assertion by the congressman and Senator Moylan that $32 million was available to them was totally unfounded and unsupported," said Carlson, referring to a discussion the two had with Mayors Council president Jesse Alig, covered by the media.

He says they were factoring in counties, which Guam does not have.

Instead, the Leon Guerrero administration has been waiting to hear back from the Treasury Department if Guam's villages could be designated as non-entitlement units (NEUs), which would qualify them for some $17 million in assistance.

But Carlson says if the mayors apply on their own, they wouldn't get the full amount.

"There is a 75 percent cap on the amount available to them, so if they were eligible and proceeded by themselves they would only get $9.6 million," he quantified. "Which means they're leaving $7 million on the table. No one should ever contemplate doing something like that."

But Carlson says the governor can qualify for the full amount, and has pledged to give it all back to the mayors. "And they're 100 percent behind what it is we're doing, they understand what we're doing and the economic benefit of what it is that we're doing," he said.

Meanwhile, what did Mayors Council president Jesse Alig say regarding the meeting with Congressman San Nicolas and Senator Moylan?

It wasn't what he expected.