Guam senators continued to hammer out the 2026 budget Tuesday as they questioned the officials who drew up the executive branch’s proposal and the legislature’s version of the budget bill.
The business privilege tax – which is now 5% - remained an issue as the legislature’s substitute budget bill sought to reduce it to 4.5%.
Sen. Jesse Lujan said the reduction of the BPT is a priority for the Republican senators, who make up a majority in the legislature, and the administration should have made an effort to cut expenses.
“There’s no secret that the majority of folks that are here in this 38th Guam legislature campaigned on the fact to roll back the BPT," Lujan said. "And on the day that we got sworn in, we said we were going to roll back the BPT.”
However, Bureau of Budget and Management Research Director Lester Carlson said support for rolling back the BPT appeared lukewarm when a bill to do so was first introduced, and there were no replacement revenue streams offered by the legislature.
Guam State Clearinghouse Administrator Stephanie Flores told senators there were still uncertainties about how federal cuts would affect money that comes to Guam.
“The process is slow on the federal end in terms of really figuring out how the budget impacts will translate down the line,” Flores said. “But that has been happening since January of this year. Once the executive orders started coming out, we we were very proactive.”
The senators questioned Carlson, Flores, Department of Administration Director Edward Birn, Legislative Office of Finance and Budget Director Stephen Guerrero and officials from the Department of Revenue and Taxation.
In addition to questions regarding revenue from the BPT, senators asked about the amount of money needed for tax refunds and whether the budget included adequate funding for rebuilding Simon Sanchez High School and modernizing the Department of Corrections.
