What community issues would you like or like not to see the government or the legislature address going into the new year?

“We have seen numerous pieces of legislation this past year that have sought to increase fees, taxes or bills that would negatively impact the cost of doing business on Guam. We need to work toward making our island more business friendly, which would encourage local entrepreneurship as well as attract foreign investment, which leads to increasing growth of our economy. When businesses thrive, the community thrives.”

Catherine S. Castro

President, Guam Chamber of Commerce

“I’d really like the government to make a concerted effort to tackle graffiti and trash. It’s my belief that we should be targeting this through education and enforcement. A strong campaign aimed at the youth to make trashing and graffiti socially unacceptable. Let the kids put pressure on parents. Trash enforcement could start with something as simple as cigarette butts being tossed from cars. Pressure could be applied to business and home owners to clean graffiti on their property — while this is not necessarily fair on the person who has just been offended against it may create a bigger awareness and some outcry.”

Phillip Law

Managing partner, Property Shop

“The biggest issue facing the CNMI is the dramatic cut in the CW cap for fiscal 2018 and beyond. Without the availability of sufficient labor, the CNMI economy will certainly suffer and our hospitality industry will revert back to low arrivals and empty hotel rooms.”

Kanae Quinn

Owner, Quinn Consulting LLC, and co-owner, Marianas Fitness Ltd., which does business as Gold’s Gym Saipan

“I would like to see the government offer services for small businesses [like those] the small business development center at University of Guam has in place. It’s a great resource for potential small business owners to use as a reference for help and guidance when opening a new business.”

Ray P. Chargualaf

Owner and operating manager, Fat Boy Slim and HÅTSA Guam

“H-2B visas — we need to do everything we can to convince the federal government that Guam businesses cannot survive for long without them. There is too much happening and not enough skilled talent on Guam. Even the continental United States is having workforce issues because of the dearth of talent exacerbated by natural catastrophes in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

I’d also like to see addressed:

How do we compassionately address the apparent increasing homeless population?
How do we improve the quality of care versus cost of care at Guam Memorial Hospital?

Personally, I believe Guam should privatize its hospital and its utilities. I predict its citizens would see similar (but probably not as dramatic) results (service quality, reliability, management and costs) as the island saw with GTA [Teleguam]’s privatization.”

Wayne Cornell