Sen. Jim Moylan penned a letter to Speaker Therese Terlaje today asking she use her power to call an emergency session of senators. He asks the speaker to place at least one of the four bills introduced that will lower gas prices on island. The call comes the same morning Mobil increased gasoline prices by 15 cents a gallon, and diesel by 20 cents.
Ms. Terlaje introduced bills to lower and eliminate the liquid fuel tax on gasoline. Sen. Joe San Agustin introduced a bill to place a moratorium on the LFT for 180 days. And Mr. Moylan introduced legislation to eliminate the business privilege tax on liquid fuel purchases.
Those bills remain locked in Mr. San Agustin’s finance committee. The Rules Committee, led by Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes, also has not taken action to place these bills on the current session agenda.
Mr. Moylan’s letter to the speaker follows:
Dear Speaker Terlaje;
A media report was just released noting that the price of gas at one service station has just increased to nearly $6.34 a gallon, which means a trickling effect to other service stations as well, who will be prompted to raise their prices as well. This is getting ridiculous, as only a month ago island residents were concerned that gas prices were nearing $6.00 a gallon, and now we are nearing $6.50 a gallon as a norm. One thing is certain, this legislature needs to do something immediately to provide relief to island consumers at the gas pumps.
As of date, four measures have been introduced to address tax reductions associated with fuel. You introduced two measures, Bills 260-36 and 260-36 to address the liquid fuel tax. Shortly after I introduced Bill 290-36 to establish a BPT exemption on liquid fuel purchases. Senator Joe San Agustin introduced Bill 295-36 to create a 180-day moratorium on the liquid fuel tax. While I still believe that my measure is the most ideal solution in this era with a volatile market on fuel costs, at this point all that matters is that some measure is passed immediately and sent to the Governor’s desk at the earliest for her action.
I would like to request that you utilize the authority vested in your role as the Speaker of the 36th Guam Legislature to call for an Emergency Session at the earliest day possible and place all 4 of these measures on the agenda. This would allow for a Committee as a Whole discussion with the Governor’s finance team and provide Senators the opportunity to work collectively on a solution. Whether it is passing multiple measures, or merging a couple of bills into one, at this point, doing nothing is not acceptable for anyone.
This evening at 4pm we will be concluding the May 2022 session, and another month would have gone by and once again a measure addressing this fuel crisis would have failed to be placed on the agenda for discussion. An Emergency Session can and should address this issue, and I do hope that you will take my request into serious consideration. Island residents deserve no less and should not be waiting any longer for this legislature to take some action. Madam Speaker, this is unfortunately an emergency. Thank you.
Respectfully,
James “Jim” Moylan
