The Guam Economic Development Authority announced it will make available a total of $300,000 in grants, paid for by two companies that receive tax breaks from the government of Guam.
The grant money must be spent to help train residents to find jobs or better jobs, or develop new businesses on island.
The money comes from the annual “community contributions” paid by Guam Regional Medical City and the Tsubaki Hotel, which have GEDA-issued qualifying certificates that give them 20 years of tax breaks, including on their corporate income taxes. The annual community contributions are one of the requirements of their qualifying certificate agreements.
Staff Reports
Sen. Tony Ada introduced two measures to provide additional revenue streams for Guam’s mayors and village programs, according to a news release.
The bill adds a provision to the Guam Economic Development Authority’s qualifying certificate program, which expands public investments by program beneficiaries.
The investments include projects sponsored by village mayors and municipal planning councils.
“Our village mayors and their municipal planning councils have been hard-pressed to secure funding for their projects and programs, Ada said.
The bill would transfer control of the tourist attraction fund to the Guam Visitors Bureau and allow up to half of the allocated funds for the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Mayors Council of Guam, and individual mayors.
HAGà TÃA (IHFG) â I Hagan FamalÃ¥oâan GuÃ¥han Incorporated continues to present Mo na: Finding Our Way, a 10-part webinar series for women to examine, analyze and interpret historical roles of CHamoru women in the Marianas, sustainability practices, and health and indigenous healing practices within a humanities context. The webinar series features presentations led by CHamoru women scholars, activists, experts and cultural practitioners, facilitated discussion and other interactive components.
The fourth event in the 10-part series is entitled âCorn Soup and CHalakiles: Bringing Native Narratives to the Tableâ with Desiree Taimanglo Ventura, MA and Simone Efigenia Perez Bollinger, M.Ed. and takes place on Thursday, February 11, at 6 p.m. CHST.
The grants will be funded by its corporate qualifying certificates. We created a qualifying certificate community contribution grant program. we created the program so that grants that came out during our (qualifying certificate) process could be transparent and available to the community at large, said Melanie Mendiola, agency administrator. The big focus is on training folks and incubating small businesses. We re looking at programs that have to do with re-training, . as well as promoting the creation of new businesses.
The agency gives gives tax breaks to some businesses by issuing 20-year qualifying certificates. Many of those certificates require the businesses to make cash contributions to GEDA, which allocates some of the contributions to its grant program for community organizations. The agency s board has final approval of which organizations are to receive grants from the pool of money.