CALVO: “The union has been talking about increasing your pay for years, but they want to do that by increasing the taxes you pay.”
THE TRUTH
Teacher Pay: Teachers did get a 14% pay raise thanks to a united lobbying effort. It wasn’t enough but it was a start. Teachers like every other public servant are under paid by half, have the worst health insurance and retirement in the country.
Taxes: Guam has no control of our income tax because the Organic Act ensures that our taxes are the same as federal taxes. Guam’s legislature does control the Gross receipts tax but many of our biggest businesses like hotels, Pay-less and others have qualifying certificates that allow them to pay zero or just a fraction of what they should. That leaves Guam’s working families to pay the bulk of taxes on Guam and the rich and powerful pay very little. We have always supported that they should pay their fair share so that we would have the revenues needed to have decent schools, safety and healthcare but Guam’s rich and powerful have always fought us. We have also supported a living wage law which would ensure that if a business received a tax break they would pay their employees enough money so they would become tax payers and not tax burdens.