SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s government submitted a required fiscal plan on Thursday that excludes pension cuts and layoffs sought by a federal oversight board as legislators in the U.S. territory angered by its demands debate a bill that would withhold payments for board member salaries, among other things.<\/p>\n
Gov. Ricardo Rossello told reporters that he hopes his administration and the board can reach an agreement on the fiscal plan so they can move toward restructuring a portion of the island’s more than $70 billion public debt load amid an 11-year recession. He said that if the board certifies a fiscal plan that contains layoffs and a 10 per cent cut to a pension system already facing nearly $50 billion in liabilities, his administration will not implement those measures.<\/p>\n
“We are asking the board to reconsider their position of trying to impose public policy and let the government of Puerto Rico do its job,” Rossello said.<\/p>\n
The board has not yet commented publicly on the fiscal plan, which Puerto Rico’s government revised to meet some of the board’s demands.<\/p>\n
Rossello did not say whether he supports a bill recently approved by Puerto Rico’s Senate that would withhold public funds slated for a board operating with a $60 million budget but seeking an $80 million one for upcoming years. Nearly $2 million worth of public funds are spent on the board’s salaries, including $625,000 a year for its executive director.<\/p>\n
Rossello said he understands the frustration that is building against the board.<\/p>\n
“I will not limit myself to actions I can take in the future,” he said regarding the bill that will go to the island’s House of Representatives for consideration.<\/p>\n
The fiscal plan anticipates a $6.4 billion surplus over five years, but Gerardo Portela, director of Puerto Rico’s financial authority, said the island’s government would face a nearly $10 billion deficit if it pays its public debt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s government submitted a required fiscal plan on Thursday that excludes pension cuts and layoffs sought by a federal oversight board as legislators in the U.S. territory angered by its demands debate a bill that would withhold payments for board member salaries, among other things. Gov. Ricardo Rossello told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3967,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions\/3967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}