Dedededo Mayor Melissa B. Savares, president of the Mayors Council of Guam, said the tax will fund their projects as well as for their veterans affairs as well as the police and fire departments.
Savares said Guam Sen. Tom Ada’s bill “will definitely give us the funding that we need to operate in our community.”
Because only Rota and Tinian will be affected by the measure, she said these islands should have their own storage tanks so they can get their fuel supply from Saipan instead of Guam. That, she added, will reduce the cost per gallon.
Savares said Tinian and Rota leaders may want to work with Saipan so they will no longer be dependent on fuel transshipment from Guam.
Merizo Mayor Ernest T. Chargualaf said the Guam Legislature is trying to find additional revenue sources.
He noted that oil companies use Guam as storage facility.
“So whatever comes into our soil should be taxed for whatever purposes,” Chargualaf said.
“They have been exempted for a long time. That is why now we are saying it is about time that it be taxed. You don’t use any locality for storage without paying for it,” he added.
Everybody’s hurting, he said. He knows the CNMI is hurting “and so is Guam.”
The CNMI Senate adopted a resolution two months ago, urging their Guam counterparts not to pass Ada’s bill saying it will be detrimental to the economy of Rota, Tinian and other Micronesian islands.
