By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

GUAM residents could be facing what a Democratic senator describes as “fee shock” once the 2007 revised budget bill is approved.
Amid reservations expressed by some senators, (See related story), the Legislature voted yesterday afternoon to include the administration’s proposed fee schedule packages in Bill 74.
The proposal for adjustments in fees for licenses, permits and other services provided by the Guam Fire Department, the Department of Revenue and Taxation, the Department of Land Management and the Guam Police Department is an integral component of the administration’s cost recovery and deficit elimination plan.
The proposed fee increases, ranging from 100 to 500 percent, are expected to generate $4.5 million in additional revenue for the remaining six months of the current fiscal year.
The administration justifies the fee increases, saying that rates for services, permits and licenses have not been updated for over a decade.
If the bill is approved, DRT would be raising the driver’s license fee from $5 to $25. The fee for duplicate certificates of vehicle ownership and equipment identification receipts would jump from $1 to $20. The alcohol license fee for retail outlets would increase from $150 to $300.
Besides the fee increases, the administration also proposed to authorize agencies to charge for services that were previously provided to the public for free.
Vice Speaker Eddie Calvo, R-Maite, said a couple of amendments have been made to the fee plan submitted by the administration.
“There were items that have been deleted but we pretty much passed everything,” said Calvo, chairman of the finance and commerce committee.
The Legislature, however, left out the proposed fee schedule for the Guam Police Department “because of complications,” Calvo said.
“GPD submitted two packages with different increase rates. If you are presenting a proposal, present just one to avoid any complications,” Calvo said.
Calvo said the Legislature eventually voted to delete the GPD component of the package and asked the police department to rework its fees. “We didn’t want to spend more time discussing those conflicting figures and the police officials agreed,” he said.
Calvo said the deletion of the GPD component would not have a significant impact on the amount of additional revenues that the administration is expecting to generate from the new fees.
“Even without the new fees for GPD, I still think we can hit the $4.5 million target for the next six months,” he added.
No senator objected when Sen. Adolpho Palacios, D-Ordot/Chalan Pago, moved to incorporate the fee schedule package into Bill 74.
After voting on the fee provision, senators yesterday moved on to continue the discussion of miscellaneous items in the bill.
Although no one objected to Palacios’ motion, some senators have expressed misgivings about what some consider exorbitant fee adjustments.