HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Motorists are closer to being spared a small bump in the price at the pump, after lawmakers voted Monday to extend for six months a freeze on fuel taxes.
Bill 135-37 extends the moratorium on most liquid fuel taxes and associated surcharges that motorists have enjoyed since last summer, which together add a charge of 19 cents to every gallon of regular-grade fuel and 18 cents to every gallon of diesel.
Senators voted without opposition to pass Bill 135 during an emergency session Monday evening. Sens. Sabina Perez and Telo Taitague were both absent from the vote. A signature from Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero is now all that’s needed before the bill can become law and the pause can be extended.
The fuel tax pause actually expired over the weekend, said Sen. Joe San Agustin, who sponsored the legislation. San Agustin said he had a chance to speak personally with two fuel distributors on the island, who told him they would await action from the Legislature before hiking prices back up.
“They said that as long as there’s movement, they’re not going to raise the rates just for one day. And if this bill passes, then they move on,” San Agustin told his colleagues.
Fuel purchases spiked in the weeks following Typhoon Mawar’s devastation, the senator added, as evidenced by the long gas station lines that were visible in villages across the island. He said that “any little savings” that could be provided to residents was a help.
According to San Agustin, the estimated loss in revenue the government of Guam would face from the six-month tax pause would be about $5.1 million.
Almost all of that otherwise would have gone to the Guam Highway Fund for village road repairs.
That loss of revenue didn’t stop Sen. Chris Barnett from supporting the measure.
He said, “Maybe a question for further on down the road is: If we’ve been able to live without this gas tax for this long, maybe we should just consider a permanent repeal of it?”
Speaker Therese Terlaje said there should be no adverse impact to any government agencies or services, given senators had not counted on the fuel taxes being available during fiscal year 2023 anyway.
No tax breaks for food, groceries
But the public won’t see any tax relief at the grocery story or the pharmacy.
Sen. Jesse Lujan pushed for his Bill 4-37, which would waive all business privilege taxes on food and medicine for 12 months, to be entertained during session Monday.
“This should instantly provide relief to our consumers, grocery stores, mom and pop stores, and all the places where people purchase food. Likewise over-the-counter medicines,” Lujan said during the emergency session.
But Speaker Terlaje said she couldn’t certify that the measure would benefit the health and safety of the public, due to the potentially severe impact on government finances. Appropriations committee Chair Sen. San Agustin “alleged” that Bill 4 would violate promises that GovGuam had made to its bondholders, and may result in the “acceleration of bond payments.”
A public hearing would have to be held to determine whether the bill would be a benefit or a harm, Terlaje said.
Sen. Tom Fisher pressed the speaker about the decision, after Terlaje said there were residents who were going hungry in the wake of the typhoon.
The speaker said a violation of bond covenants would potentially require the government to come up with all the money it owed out of the already overextended General Fund.
“It’s a huge impact,” she told Fisher. “In fact, it would probably create a bigger disaster than the one we’re facing right now.”
Sen. Lujan’s Bill 3-37, which would roll back business privilege taxes to 4% from the current rate of 5%, likewise failed to make the session agenda. Terlaje pointed to similar concerns about the bill’s impacts on GovGuam finances.
Lujan motioned to place both measures on the session agenda. Both failed to get enough votes to overcome an objection from San Agustin.
‘Turning into a free-for-all’
A number of other measures were also added onto the emergency session agenda Monday afternoon, a move that prompted criticism from Sen. Joanne Brown.
Senators ultimately voted to pass the following items:
• Bill 134-37, which would take $2 million from the Rainy Day Fund and put it toward payments for farmers in the Crop Loss Program. Sens. Brown, Frank Blas Jr., Chris Duenas, Fisher and Lujan all voted against the measure.
• Bill 136-37, which would authorize the Guam Department of Education to use emergency procurement to get in line with sanitation regulations after Typhoon Mawar. Sens. Brown, Blas, Duenas, Fisher and Lujan voted against the measure.
• Bill 137-37, to use $5 million in unused money provided to the Department of Public Health and Social Services last term for food and commodity assistance. The measure received 13 votes in support and none against.
• Bill 139-37, to clarify the uses of the $50 million that Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero was authorized to use on typhoon recovery. Added uses include establishment of shelters, funding for farmers, Guam Fisherman’s Co-op repair funding and generators for schools. The measure received 13 votes in support and none against.
Aside from Bills 134 and 135, each of the measures passed Monday night were introduced on the same day they went to vote and received no public hearings. Bills 134 and 135 did not receive public hearings, either, but were introduced June 13 and June 16, respectively.
The eleventh-hour additions drew the ire of Brown.
“Madam Speaker, you called us into emergency session to address one particular bill, (Bill 135),” the senator said, as lawmakers tacked extra pieces of legislation onto the agenda at the start of the emergency session.
“And this is now turning into a free-for-all,” Brown said. “We’re being asked to vote on bills we don’t even have before us to even review it. This is almost like a circus here.”
Brown did not raise any formal objections, however.
Senators vote on a resolution Monday, June 19, 2023, during an emergency session of the 37th Guam Legislature in Hagåtña.
