Leaders react to decision

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - Local leaders are reacting to District Court Judge Consuelo Marshal's Wednesday's decision that all tax refunds must be paid out timely and fairly. Most leaders we spoke with today agreed that her ruling was as to be expected, however the person ultimately charged with making the sure tax refund checks are cut, Department of Administration director Benita Manglona says it's been this administration's commitment from the get go to make sure all past due tax refunds are paid out and future refunds are paid on time.

She said, "It's a victory for the taxpayers and they are entitled to their money and that's why I go back again and say this governor has been an advocate for the tax payers since the first day he came into office which is what he saw and this is what we needed to do and we have not veered from that focus of paying tax refunds which is why we went through the legislature and when we submitted our first initial budget back in march of last year we submitted the bi-annual budget and with that at $343 million bond bill to pay all tax refunds and to have some money reserved for the 2011 but when we went to the legislature they didn't like that plan, they gave us the two bonds, they broke it into Series A and Series B and we were not able to pay everything at once but had our plans been followed we would be paying tax refunds on at timely basis now."

The parties in the federal case have until September 21 to craft a permanent injunction that spells out when and how GovGuam will pay refunds. Meanwhile, $5.8 million worth of tax refunds was sent out this morning with more expected this week and next week as well.