THERE's a saying among our people, “Eyak i finanå’gue-mu,” or practice what you preach. We usually hear this when our mothers have caught us doing something we might have scolded others for doing. This old saying couldn’t be more appropriate as we look at what has been presented to us for the next fiscal year’s budget.

Since the beginning of the New Direction, we’ve been force-fed with the imagery of hard decision-making and disciplined financial management with cost-cutting measures and downsizing efforts, but it appears that while in press release after press release we might hear of these ambitions, the numbers have once again prevailed in revealing a slightly different story.

In the Executive Budget Request for FY2013, the executive branch has increased its appropriations from fiscal year revenue collections by about $7.8 million (2.2 percent); meanwhile, all the semi-autonomous agencies such as GDOE, UOG, GCC, the courts, the Mayors’ Council of Guam, Attorney General's Office, the Office of Public Accountability, Guam Legislature, the Public Defender Service Corporation, Guam Visitors Bureau, and the Government of Guam Retirement Fund are all expected to decrease its appropriations from fiscal year revenue collections by about $5.8 million (-1.6 percent).

This puts at stake the contract for our senior citizens whose services are now being provided by the mayors at senior centers that are in much need of renovation, repair and maintenance. The decrease will also negatively impact the prosecution of criminals and child support enforcement at the Attorney General’s Office; providing legal assistance to the most needy; and the many services provided by the court. Last week, the mayors, Attorney General, Public Auditor and Public Defender all requested increases in General Fund support to adequately run their operations. This week, the court will request a $6 million increase in their budget. Unfortunately, the FY2013 Executive Budget Request actually decreased funding with no detail or explanation as to why. For the second year in a row, the Bureau of Budget and Management Research has prepared a budget that increases funding to the executive branch and slashes funding to everyone else.

What happened to the 15 percent reserve that the governor placed on the executive branch this year? If he truly reduced their budgets by 15 percent this year, why is he asking for an increase in the next fiscal year?

With a Spending Cuts Task Force and a Fiscal Responsibility and Tax Refund Commission, how can the people of Guam take the administration seriously when it sends a budget to the Legislature that increases its expenditures? The administration claims they are unable to pay you the balance of the 2011 tax refunds but in the same breath has no issue with increasing its budget for FY2013. This has been the trend since the dawning of the current administration’s term. Just where the New Direction proa of this administration will take us in the next fiscal year we cannot know since the direction the wind blows never matched the promises in the press releases of the FY2013 budget.