IF YOU work, chances are that income tax is withheld from every paycheck. Under Guam law a portion of that tax is required to be set aside – reserved – so that when you file your 2012 tax return the money will be there for your refund, if applicable. As we all know that law has for years been habitually and consistently ignored and your taxes used for GovGuam operating expenses, almost entirely for GovGuam payroll and benefits.

The law was enacted for that specific reason – to prevent the kind of abuse that’s been perpetrated on Guam taxpayers for nearly two decades, dating back to the beginning of the Gutierrez administration. You are about to experience the effect of election year greed as your Legislature – I believe 13 of them voted for it – have again decided that the income tax reserve will go the way of all income tax reserve funds before it.

The governor proposed it, of course, because he’s looking two years down the road to the next election. His proposal, fully supported by the Legislature, will plunder that 2012 income tax reserve fund to pay 2011 refunds in keeping with his determination to pay all currently due refunds at whatever cost.

There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind why the Legislature is so fervently in favor. There’s no mystery there. This is an election year, and they want to be able to claim that they paid those 2011 tax refunds. All it amounts to, of course, is kicking the overdue refund can down the road until after the November elections. They figure they’ll have breathing room to devise new schemes in 2013.

Guess what? Next year when you file your 2012 tax return there will be no money for your refund because they’re about to raid that reserve fund right now. It will be much like it’s been for many years as delinquent refunds begin to mount, but with one big difference. There’s no more borrowing authority. The problem will be compounded over the next several years as your tax refund money continues to go to the bloated GovGuam payroll.

Anyone who works and pays taxes in the mainland USA never, ever, has to wait for tax refunds. If you tell them about the situation here they usually just stare in disbelief. After all, it’s your money and the government has no right to keep it just because they’d like to spend it on something more politically profitable.

I urge you, as a financially responsible citizen, to adjust your W-4 tax withholding information to deny them access to your money. Do what I did several years ago – make sure, as nearly as possible, that GovGuam never owes you a tax refund. It’s a simple process and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes of your time. If you need help with the math in making the adjustment ask someone who’s good at it – probably someone who’s already made the change and doesn’t need to worry about tax refunds that never come.

This government lacks credibility with a capital “L,” capital “C,” easily recognized in a glance at the success rate of the governor’s cost-saving initiatives. He ordered a reduction in the cost of running GovGuam by $43 million by June 1st, which has come and gone. Or was that some other June 1st? How much of that has been realized in real savings? Not in paper savings or smoke and mirrors reshuffling of cost centers, but in hard dollars? The cumulative financial deficit and the level of public debt are truly incredible for a community of this size. Think about it. Remember in November.