The government of Guam should look at the following for ideas to help reduce costs and generate extra income (since everybody nowadays seem to be an expert at cutting costs by solely reducing the influence of the Legislature on policy).
1. Eliminate the Office of the Lt. Governor (transfer duties and responsibilities to the Speaker of the Legislature and the President of the Mayors Council of Guam).
2. Turn Government House in Agana Heights into the Guam State Museum and Convention Center.
3. Eliminate primary elections for contests with only two candidates or less.
4. Seek a cheaper medical insurance provider for the Government of Guam's employees or negotiate lower prices for services offered by the provider selected by the Government.
5. Require that any non resident staying on Guam for longer than one (1) week obtain a temporary driving permit and charge 1/2 the price of a full driver's license (if that person is planning on driving).
6. Eliminate all publicly funded travel for high government employees for a period of three (3) fiscal years and instead look at cheaper modes of communication such as Skype or Teleconferencing if employees absolutely need to participate in such conferences.
7. Eliminate all purchasing of new vehicles for agencies that do not fall under the public safety.
8. Reduce by half the monthly stipends for members of the Consolidated Commission on Utilities OR abolish the Public Utilities Commission and hand its duties and responsibilities to the CCU.
9. When it is not tax season on Guam, employees assigned to tax divisions (and others in DRT) should be reassigned to the Motor Vehicle Section or detailed specifically to track down delinquent tax payers who owe in excess of $100,000 or more to the people of Guam.
10. Create a public work force that would be responsible for general matters (such as trimming vegetation near power lines, cleaning cemeteries and public parks, hunting down brown tree snakes and other pests, etc) minimum wage for those who are unemployed in order to get money into the system. Money for this program could come from the realization of savings for power and water bills for line agencies who utilize solar power generation, or which are merged into other agencies, or which see substantial loss of employees due to resignations, retirements, etc and not filling those positions.
11. Merge the Departments of Public Health and Mental Health into a Department of Public Health and Social Services.
12. Utilize the Department of Labor and the Agency for Human Resources Development to push to have local businesses hire locally first before seeking employees from off island. This again will provide thousands of unemployed individuals a chance to make money and contribute to the economy.
