The American Samoa Chamber of Commerce has objected to the Senate bill proposing a ten cent tax on bottled water with proceeds earmarked for hosting the Pacific Arts Festival next year.
The Chamber President, David Robinson, said his organisation did not agree that healthy drinking water should be taxed and the revenues raised from the water tax would be nowhere near the amount needed to host the festival.
Mr Robinson said the chamber also feels that the proposed $5 million budget for the festival should be revised:
"We suggested that the Senate ask for a review of that Budget, a lot of the expenses in there, in our opinion, were far too high and there was not enough attention paid to revenue earning from things like hotels, restaurants, the amount of people who would come in for the arts festival, things like handicraft sales and all those revenue items that should have been included in that budget."
