Guam § 221401 - Legislative Findings and Intent.

§ 221401. Legislative Findings and Intent.

I Liheslaturan Guåhan [The Legislature] finds that

education, health and safety are among the many government

responsibilities whose facilities have required much improvement

and expansion. As stakeholders, all of Guam’s residents,

temporary visitors, and new immigrants have an interest in the

improvement of these vital services.

I Liheslaturan Guåhan [The Legislature] finds that almost

all of Guam’s public school buildings have fallen into some

degree of disrepair. Some school facilities already have

deteriorated to the point that they cannot be occupied, forcing

schools to share classrooms with other schools. Whether the cause

of disrepair is age, natural disaster, or a simple lack of regular care

and maintenance, it is of great public interest that existing public

schools be repaired and refurbished and new public school

buildings be constructed to standards optimally conducive to

student learning.

Further, I Liheslaturan Guåhan [The Legislature] finds that

for many years, the number of public schools have not kept pace

with the trends in Guam’s population. As a result, many of

Guam’s public schools have become overcrowded, at times far

surpassing the student capacities they originally had been

designed to accommodate. Consequently, Guam’s educators on a

COL4/6/2022

daily basis have had to overcome the challenges of teaching

students in an environment that often detracts from, rather than

enhances, the teaching-and-learning process.

At the same time, but in a different area of need, the people

of Guam also have had to cope with the Guam Memorial

Hospital’s CT Scan System that has nearly surpassed its useful life

and also is in great need of technological update. I Liheslatura

also recognizes the much-needed expansion and redesign of the

emergency medical department, as well as the need to establish an

endoscopy suite on Guam.

Moreover, I Liheslaturan Guåhan [The Legislature] realizes

that the Department of Public Health and Social Services regional

community health clinics are unable to accommodate the

population increases in the island’s villages, and therefore, would

require expansion of the health centers, or in some cases, may

require additional ones.

Less visible to the general public yet very important to the

overall safety of the community, Guam’s Adult Correctional

Facility requires safety upgrades in order to meet mandates set

forth by the U.S. Federal government in a Consent Decree entered

into between the government of Guam and the Federal

government as a result of a lawsuit. These safety upgrades, which

include fire control and entry control devices, would ensure

adequate security for Guam’s people and safety for the facility’s

personnel and inmates. I Liheslatura finds that the interests of

public security and the humane delivery of justice demand that

these upgrades be completed without further delay.

I Liheslaturan Guåhan [The Legislature] further recognizes

that the repair and refurbishment of existing public schools, the

construction of new public schools, the establishment of

healthcare facilities, and safety upgrades to the prison are

expensive endeavors. However, they are investments of vital

importance to the island’s future. While the financing of large

projects is difficult, it is neither an insurmountable obstacle, nor a

necessarily reckless and risky financial undertaking. This

legislative body is mindful of the need for new facilities but also

equally mindful that the price of educating our students,

COL4/6/2022

improving health care, and ensuring security does not have to be

a huge debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren.

Therefore, it is the intent of I Liheslaturan Guåhan [The

Legislature] to enable the financing for the repair and

refurbishment of existing public schools, the construction of new

public schools, the replacement of the CT Scan System and the

establishment of an endoscopy suite at the Guam Memorial

Hospital, the expansion and the redesign of the emergency

medical department of the Guam Memorial Hospital, the

expansion of the Department of Public Health and Social Services

regional community health clinics or the construction of new ones,

and safety upgrades to our prison facility; thereby investing in a

solid future for Guam’s people, while ensuring that this same

investment is not compromised by large public debt.

I Liheslatura further finds that the securitization of future

revenue streams to be received by the government of Guam is an

acceptable source of repayment of bonds issued with no recourse

to full faith and credit of the government for repayment. I

Liheslatura successfully issued bonds using this method with the

securitization of the future payments of the master settlement

agreement between the tobacco companies and the various states

attorneys general. In addition, other state and local governments

have done the same with revenues of Federal grants to states

authorized by Congress.

For Guam, we have such an opportunity to maximize the

future revenues of the Compact Impact reimbursements

authorized for twenty (20) years by the recent re-authorization in

United States Public Law 108-188 of the Compact of Free

Association. The securitization of these future revenues can be

used to issue bonds of a sufficient amount to accomplish the

projects authorized herein that will result in an economic stimulus

that creates new jobs and increased government revenues.