NO matter what anybody says, there is still a lot of money coming into the island. There are quite a number of things that the local government can go after that could relieve the pressure that is currently being put on the populus but these things are not being done.
Presently, the greater burden of financing the government coffers is being placed upon the majority of the people of Guam. Once in a while, I hear the words of GFT’s Matt Rector saying that the large companies are not paying their fair share. The words that he chooses to use are not that far fetched. Of course, we want our people to pay what they should but many of the burden of fees and assessments are made with little regard as to the ones who have not paid their fair share.
There have been exemptions that have been granted over the years that have allowed for the shortfall in the government revenues every year for more than a decade. Millions of dollars that should have been taxed over the past decade have not been taxed. We need to consider that with all of the money exchanging hands on Guam, do the people in our middle class have to cover the burden of paying for government services to the tune we are now, because of some shortfalls or inadequacies with poor money management?
How much profit is a company or an individual entitled to before it is considered sinful? For some companies, the sky is the limit. On the average, a company should make a net profit on goods and services of 30-35 percent. Some companies do not do as well. Other companies do somewhere between 100-300 percent profit. The availability of goods and services on Guam is important because Guam has become a consumptive society.
In lean times, we still have tremendous needs for just about anything under the sun, including a few hundred dollars of disposable income monthly that goes out indiscriminately to things we don’t really have a use for. Some companies are off the hook in paying what they need to pay for because they have politicians who are grateful to them for their financial support. They refuse to go after those who are pocketing huge sums of money at the burden of the middle class. There is something wrong with this picture.

FELIX AGUON
Dededo, Guam