ALTHOUGH a majority of Saipan lawmakers say they favor the increase of the user fee paid by the garment industry, it will still be given the chance to air its concerns on House Local Bill 13-25 which seeks to raise by 1.3 percent the 3.7 percent user fee.
‘The user fee bill is now in the hands of the local delegation. But a promise is a promise and it will be kept. I will give them a day in a public forum where local managers working in garment factories would be able to air their concerns on the measure’s intent to increase the user fee,” said House Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider, the bill’s author.
Hofschneider, R-Saipan, said the public forum will be on June 4.
In a recent survey conducted by Variety, at least 12 out of Saipan’s 19 lawmakers favored the increase of the user fee.
Hofschneider said the additional fee would enable Saipan to prepare for the eventual loss of revenue and jobs following the imminent exit of the garment industry.
The funds will be used for capital improvement projects and for the promotion of the tourism industry, he said.
Asked whether the forum with the garment managers was still needed since most Saipan lawmakers have already favored the increase of the fee, the speaker said “it will still be needed even if we are dead set (on) passing it.”
“(Our decision to increase the fee) doesn’t limit us from listening to a particular or general concern. This may in fact help us understand better how they will be impacted and how we can come out with solutions to their concerns,” he said.
Twenty-seven resident managers of garment factories under the Saipan Garment Manufacturing Association have expressed opposition to the bill.
They said it would be “senseless to kill” the garment industry to help the tourism industry.
