by Nick Delgado

Guam - Government officials are headed to the mainland to get the ball rolling with selling Business Privilege Tax Bonds that will be used to pay past due tax refunds, COLA, and retirement contributions for the Guam Memorial Hospital and the Department of Education. Guam Economic Development Authority administrator Karl Pangelinan says officials will first market the attractive bonds that recently received an investment grade of ‘A with Stable Outlook' before pricing, hopefully this Tuesday.

He said, "So the next week and a half is going to be crucial time with us talking to our bond holders, the investment houses that buy Guam bonds to get them comfortable with the credit and something that they will need clarity on to get comfortable with before they decide to participate in the issuance. After that, it's probably going to be a weeks worth of activity, after that the following week, we'll go to price the bonds."

The Calvo Administration is hopeful the bonds will be closed in early December in time to get refund checks out to residents by the middle of next month.