LAST week’s column was not well-received by my friends in the banking, hotel and health insurance industries. Many angry phone calls later, I have learned that the owners of our local banks, hotels and insurance companies still do not think they should be made to pay taxes.

Through the miracle that is electronic social media, I have been bludgeoned by data that purportedly supports the delusion that when certain privileged companies don’t pay for the privilege of doing business on Guam, this is all somehow good for the island’s poor, sick, and dying.

But contrary to the impassioned pleas of wealthy bankers, welfare for the rich can no longer be a sustainable GovGuam policy. Our island's people are struggling to pay for cancer medicines and to deal with catastrophic disease. Our island's only civilian hospital is millions of dollars delinquent in paying its bills. As Gov. Calvo calls for $43 million in government cutbacks and islandwide worker layoffs, the need for egalitarian economic pain has never been more necessary.

Today, more than 14,200 Guamanian families with young children need the government's help to put food on the table. Almost 43,500 people – nearly one-third of our entire population – is on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Grandiose plans for economic growth and private-sector expansion will be fruitless if our people, especially our most needy families, cannot take advantage of the opportunities before us.

The Guam Tax Code demands that every person or company engaging in the practice of commercial business on Guam shall pay a 4 percent tax on gross income to contribute to the common good. The Guam Tax Code originally spoke directly to banks, hotels and insurers paying this gross receipts tax. Over the years, banks, hotels and insurance companies have received legislative relief from paying for the privilege of doing business on Guam.

Yet while thousands of Guam citizens stood up last week to pay their fair share to the common good, not a single Guam legislator stepped up to slaughter the sacred cow that is GRT exemptions. Despite the destructive effect these unhealthy tax exemptions have on our fragile island economy, only Vice Speaker BJ Cruz from Piti publicly made a passing allusion to addressing this economic issue.

Most of Guam's senators have proven themselves too scared, too sinister, or too stupid to deal with the issue of GRT exemptions. While they have been recklessly hasty to add to the tax burden of Guam's hard-working people, the Guam Legislature has whored itself to local special interests that benefit only the rich. Indeed, the pedigree of many incumbent senators reveals that they are the spawn of these very industries that receive the GRT exemptions.

New senators like Dennis Rodriguez, Chris Duenas, Mana Silva, Aline Yamashita and Tony Ada must now have the moral fortitude to lead their corrupt older colleagues away from the cesspool that is GRT exemptions. Devoid of any socio-economic benefit, GRT exemptions are a legacy of the "Me-First" attitude of previous Guam politicians.

That selfish, morally bankrupt policy has chased away our own children who are sickened by the hypocrisy of leaders who steal from the poor to give to the rich. From Mangilao to Merizo and from Yigo to Yoña, 1st-graders everywhere recognize the fallacy of a government that is too broke to pay for its bills, but rich enough to endow off-island hoteliers.

Banks, hotels and insurance companies must immediately be made to pay the gross receipts tax like everyone else on Guam. Our island's moral and fiscal health may depend upon it.