Bryan’s Finance Team Closes Out Summer of Budget Hearings

The central government’s finance team appeared before the Senate Budget, Appropriations and Finance Committee Tuesday to present their final testimony on the territory’s $1.76 billion proposed budget.

The wrap-up meeting came after months of budget hearings during which individual department heads defended their budget requests for the upcoming fiscal year — or explained why their recommended allotments were insufficient — and several developments have reshaped the territory’s financial outlook since Gov. Albert Bryan Jr.’s financial team first presented the 2026 executive budget to the Legislature in June.

One seismic shift came in June when the Government Employees’ Retirement System moved forward with a planned 3% increase to employer contributions, effective Oct. 1. The GERS’ board approved the increase in September 2024 but later delayed implementation for nine months because the government’s precarious fiscal state at the time would have left it unable to meet its obligation to the system. That hasn’t changed, Management and Budget Director Julio Rhymer Sr. told lawmakers Tuesday.

When asked by Sen. Novelle Francis Jr. if the government could absorb the cost of the increase, Rhymer simply answered, “No.”