SENATE President Edith Deleon Guerrero on Monday said the Senate leadership is carefully looking into tax hike proposals of the administration and the House of Representatives.
In an interview with Variety, Deleon Guerrero said the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee has conducted public hearings on Saipan, Tinian and Rota on six House bills proposing to impose or increase taxes on certain goods and services.
Carefully analyzing the tax hike proposals “is exactly what I [asked] the committee to do — conduct hearings on all the bills on three islands,” she said. Any proposed legislation, including tax hike bills, “must go through proper review, scrutiny and public hearing,” she added.
“It’s the proper thing to do so that the public can share their concerns before any official action in the form of a standing committee report is filed for the full Senate body to consider,” Deleon Guerrero said.
Among the “revenue-generating” measures that the House has passed and transmitted to the Senate are H.B. 23-41, to impose a tax on imported betel nut and lime; H.B. 23-68, to impose a tax on private cars bought outside the CNMI; H.B. 23-74, to impose a tax on construction activities; H.B. 23-78, to increase the tax on soda and alcoholic beverage containers; and House Bill 23-7, to increase the tobacco tax. In April, by a vote of 4 to 4, the Senate failed to adopt a committee report recommending the passage of H.B. 23-7.
Deleon Guerrero said that on Aug. 29, 2024, at 10 a.m., the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee will conduct another public hearing on H.B. 23-7 and H.B. 23-74 in the Senate chamber.
“Committees exist for this very purpose…, [and a public hearing] is the prudent thing to do for all concerned,” she said, as she reiterated that the government must be mindful of where the Commonwealth stands today financially when tourist numbers are down, and the government is not collecting the revenue it used to in the past.
She said that “leaders should first ask themselves why weren’t these tax bills introduced when the economy was good.” These tax hike measures, she added, are being proposed when the economy is “tanking.”
“Let’s look at it this way. If you impose taxes, the prices of goods and services will go up, and businesses may not necessarily stay open. And who do they pass the cost to? The consumers. And then the spending power of the people would go down because again the prices of goods and services would go up in the market. And there are also no opportunities for families to save money,” Deleon Guerrero said.
So all these tax hike proposals have to be carefully reviewed, Deleon Guerrero said. They should first see if the measures are fair to the businesses or if they would pose a risk to their staying in business, she added.
“Are we going to hurt them when we are already [collecting] business gross revenue tax on a monthly basis?” she asked.
She said the Legislature must carefully study tax hike measures instead of acting on them right away.
