By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

THE Guam Chamber of Commerce is urging Gov. Felix P. Camacho to veto Bill 74, or The Amended General Appropriations Act of 2007, which the governor’s office received last May 9.
Under the law, the governor has 10 days to either veto the bill or sign it into law.
According to the Chamber, the bill does not address the most pressing problem facing the government of Guam, which is the need to streamline the government to bring costs in line with a reduced revenue stream.
Chamber chairman Stephen C. Ruder said the organization does not believe that government revenues detailed in the bill can be achieved, especially since the revenue expectations from the tax amnesty programs “appear to be mere guesses” rather than supported by hard facts.
“For instance, what is the basis for the revenue expectations from the tax amnesty programs? Are there hard facts to support this revenue estimation? We are somewhat surprised that $5 million is expected from an amnesty program for property taxes,” Ruder said.
Ruder pointed out that under the law, GovGuam should have already repossessed and sold properties with unpaid taxes.
“More importantly, we believe now is the time to implement the necessary changes required to finally and fundamentally change the way in which the government of Guam operates,” Ruder said.
He added that the various fee increases provided by the bill did not go through public scrutiny under the Administrative Adjudication Act process.
Ruder said it appears that the increased fee amounts in Bill 74 are not cost recovery fees and there is no justification that the fee increases will actually go to pay the specific cost of a particular government service.
“It only makes sense to rationally justify the increases and not simply reason that we need to increase fees because the general fund is short,” Ruder added.