HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero joined seven of her stateside counterparts in a plea for the federal government to approve more visas for foreign workers in a joint letter.
“We recognize there are many causes of the labor shortage, including some that are outside our control. However, that fact only highlights the importance of the policy solutions we can control. One such solution is to increase the number of temporary foreign workers coming into the United States under a variety of exchange or worker visas,” she wrote, along with the governors of Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Utah and Vermont to President Joe Biden.
The governors noted in their joint letter that labor shortages are “increasingly becoming” a serious challenge for states, territories and the country.
Locally, the lack of skilled workers in the construction industry has been cited as a cause for delays and cost increases. Guam is also reliant on some H-2B visa applications receiving concurrence from military officials that a civilian project is related to the ongoing military buildup before they are approved.
“Many of these visa programs were curtailed at the beginning of the pandemic as U.S. unemployment rose. As our economy recovers and we learn more about the unique nature of this recovery, any such justifications for limiting worker visas are long since gone, at least in our states and territories,” the governors wrote.
While recognizing the Biden administration’s efforts to remove barriers to get more foreign workers to fill health care jobs, they are now strongly encouraging the president expand his focus to a “broader swath of skill sets.”
“We want to be clear that we make this request even as we do all within our power to create an economic environment conducive to economic growth. We are investing in programs to reskill our workforce for the jobs currently in demand, we’re considering various changes to our tax codes that might make work more attractive, we’re supporting impacted businesses, and we’re doing everything else possible to reduce barriers to workforce participation,” according to the letter.
No tax reform for Guam
But while some have been asking the administration and the Legislature repeatedly for a reduction in the local business privilege tax, Leon Guerrero herself is not proposing any change to taxes on Guam.
Krystal Paco-San Agustin, the governor’s director of communications confirmed with The Guam Daily Post that the joint letter doesn’t necessarily reflect Leon Guerrero’s position on taxes.
“It was a collective letter. This issue is not specific to Guam,” she said, in response to questions on what changes to Guam’s tax codes the governor was considering.
Guam unemployment high
Paco San Agustin said she believes the portion of the letter regarding taxation represents the “main” part of the joint communication that doesn’t align with the governor’s policy preferences and did not mention any other examples of contradictions it may contain.
The letter, however, also paints a rosier picture of the island’s unemployment.
Expressing that they were “proud” of recovering economies following the downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the governors wrote: “In many of our states and territories we are experiencing extraordinarily low unemployment.”
That’s not the case for Guam, which recorded an 11.4% unemployment rate in June 2021, compared to the 6.1% level recorded in Dec. 2020, before the pandemic reached Guam.
“Again, we request your help to increase the flow of work-based visas as an additional tool to help address our workforce shortages and the cascading economic consequences of those shortages,” the governors wrote to the president.
