By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

THE Committee to Keep Guam Working, the umbrella group of the five biggest business organizations on island, has joined the business community’s opposition to any new tax increase.
The committee, in a letter to Gov. Felix P. Camacho, Lt. Gov. Michael Cruz, Speaker Mark Forbes, R-Sinajana, and all members of the 29th Guam Legislature, said that increasing the gross receipt tax is regressive and would only hurt those who can least afford it by forcing increases in the most basic of necessities such as food and medicine.
“As the private sector community, we are opposed to any increase in the GRT. However, we are open to look at any other solutions including recovery of fees provided that the government first does its part to make substantial, lasting and permanent change to the way it does business,” the committee said in a statement.
The Committee to Keep Guam Working represents businesses that employ nearly 40,000 private sector employees and their families.
The letter further noted that “Time after time, it has been the private sector businesses, their employees and their families who have been subjected to the ups and downs of the economy. These are the same taxpaying citizens who have suffered increases in utility rates and the cost of gasoline while our government fails to consolidate and continues to expand.”
According to committee chairman Mark Mamczarz, hardworking private sector employees and companies can no longer stand for business as usual from the government.
“How can anyone justify the position we are all in today? Our schools and our healthcare systems are in disarray, tax returns are in arrears, the quality of life for all of us is challenged, and the only hard choices our elected leaders are more taxes. When does this end?” he said.
The Committee to Keep Guam Working is calling on all elected leaders to implement some of the suggestions that have been made by its member organization, the Guam Chamber of Commerce and other qualified individuals “without political machinations or patronage, but with honesty, integrity and transparency. Only then can lasting change be effectuated.”
The committee is also cautioning elected officials to find “short-term solutions” to the current fiscal crisis facing the government. Over the last two decades, the business group said the government of Guam has continued to get bigger and spends more money without any real fiscal planning, restraint or hope of change.
“Businesses both large and small have had to adjust to keep from failing. Many times these adjustments meant reduced services or less work hours and in many cases it meant that the number of employees had to be reduced or the business had to be restructured to survive. Through it all, our government has continued to grow through the sacrifice of these hard working private sector employees,” the committee said.
The group pointed out that these are the same employees who pay the taxes that finance the government yet they are still owed tax returns from prior years.
Moreover, the committee said the government has failed employees and their families who pay these taxes and depend on healthcare, education and other vital government services.