By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

OPPOSITION to the administration’s proposal to raise fees continued to gain ground yesterday, as Guam mayors, taking up the cudgels for their constituents, urged senators to reconsider the new rates.
“I understand that fees have not been raised for over 20 years, but if we are introducing new fees, we should open up the process to the community and allow them to express how they feel about this action,” Dededo Mayor Melissa Savares said.
Savares, president of the Guam Mayors Council, also asked the Legislature to consider waiving certain fees that will burden people who cannot afford to shell out extra money.
“There are some people who are seeking jobs and are required to obtain police clearance. Maybe we can find a way to waive the fee for police clearance,” Savares said.
Guam mayors were joined by a couple of private citizens who testified at the Legislature and expressed their opposition to the proposed increases in license, permit and service fees.
The fee hike packages, now a main component of Bill 74, will affect all sectors of the community. The administration expects to raise $4.5 million in new revenue in the next six months if the new fees are implemented.
Agat Mayor Carol Tayama said the introduction of fee hikes didn’t come at the right time.
“The main concern of my constituents is the bad timing of the fee increases. While the government is having a problem right now, the people are equally suffering from power and utility rate increases,” Tayama said.
The Agat mayor also questioned the basis of the rate hikes. “We don’t know where these numbers are coming from,” she said.
Yona Mayor Pete Terlaje said he acknowledged the need to raise fees to enable the government to replenish its depleted treasury. However, he added, the people should not be the only ones carrying the burden. “The government should make sacrifices, too,” he said.
Yigo Mayor Bob Lizama, for his part, said senators should be cautious in making amendments and avoid introducing new fees at random.
He mentioned, for example, an earlier amendment introduced by Sen. Frank Ishizaki, R-Yona, that would charge new fees on users of village sports facilities and community centers.
Ishizaki had withdrawn his proposed amendment after it triggered a debate that split the senators.
“They better not reinstate this proposal. I am not charging our youth and our manamko’ for the use of the Yigo gym. These facilities are built for them,” Lizama said.
“Some of the fees are reasonable but the rest are just too high,” Lizama said.
Several items in the fee increase package must be reconsidered, the Yigo mayor said. He singled out the carnival permit fee, which was revised from $10 a day to a flat rate of $100 regardless of the number of days the fiesta fair runs.
Under the administration’s original proposal, the carnival permit fee would be raised from $10 to $100 a day, which would mean $1,700 if the carnival runs for 17 days.
“That’s too much. However, when the senators amended it to $100 per event, we lose the opportunity to make more money. Raising the $10 fee to $20 per day would have been reasonable,” Lizama said.
Victor Duenas, who represented the manamko’, chided the senators for “fighting among themselves” and losing focus.
“There’s a walkout. There’s fighting. A lot of people are watching you. The senior citizens are too sick to come here and express their feelings. They’ve been waiting for their COLA (cost of living allowance) money while you are here in an air conditioned hall fighting among yourselves,” Duenas told the senators in Chamorro.
Tom Mendiola, a private citizen, said it’s not fair that the government is trying to balance the budget “at the expense of the people.
“The government should downsize. I feel that the government is just increasing fees so that it can continue employing more people. Now you are trying to balance the budget by charging more fees on people who live paycheck to paycheck,” Mendiola said.