Legislative Findings and Intent

(a)I Liheslaturan Guåhan finds that Public Law 2-043, signed into law by Governor Ford Q. Elvidge on July 22, 1953, established the tobacco tax, which includes the tax on cigarettes.

(b)I Liheslatura finds that the current system of administering the tax on cigarettes relies upon voluntary compliance by the companies which sell cigarettes. While most companies will comply with the law in the course of their business, companies which do not, if not caught, would unfairly benefit.

(c)I Liheslatura, therefore, finds that a system which has good mechanisms of accountability will level the playing field, putting those companies which comply with the law in a more fair competitive position.

(d)I Liheslatura further finds that utilizing cigarette tax stamps will ensure that companies which comply with Guam’s tobacco tax will not be unfairly disadvantaged competitively by the very act of compliance.

(e)I Liheslatura finds that Guam is one

(1)of only four

(4)states and territories which have not authorized the use of tobacco tax stamps.

(f)I Liheslatura finds that the Healthy Futures Fund is a major source of funding for government investments in public health, including support for the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority and the Department of Public Health and Social Services.

(g)I Liheslatura further finds that the tobacco tax is the largest source of funding for the Healthy Futures Fund. In Fiscal Year 2016, approximately eighty-one percent (81%) of Healthy Futures Fund revenue came from the tobacco tax.

(h)It is, therefore, the intent of I Liheslaturan Guåhan to establish a cigarette tax stamp system to improve collections of the tobacco tax and promote fairness for businesses which comply with Guam’s laws, by the establishment of new Articles 7 and 8 of this Chapter.