San Juan – Nearly 100,000 public employees were left out of a job Monday in Puerto Rico and about 500,000 children could not attend school because of the commonwealth government’s financial crisis.
The government will only be providing essential services, such as police, emergency and health services for at least the next two months.
The commonwealth government exhausted its budget last month for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and the island’s legislature, in which the opposition has a majority, has not approved a $531 million loan to keep paying the salaries of public employees.
The partial government shutdown could continue through the end of the fiscal year if the legislature, in which the opposition New Progressive Party (PNP) has an absolute majority, does not approve the loan requested by Popular Democratic Party Gov. Anibal Acevedo.
This is the first time in the history of Puerto Rico that public schools have had to shut their doors because of a lack of funds.
The island has 1,534 public schools with more than 500,000 students and 40,000 teachers.
Municipal governments have also been affected by the financial crisis, since they get a large proportion of their operating funds from the central government.
Thousands of people took to the streets of San Juan last Friday to protest the handling of the financial crisis.
Marching under the banner “Puerto Rico Grita” (Puerto Rico Shouts), a more-than-mile-long throng marched to the seat of the Puerto Rican Congress.
Initially organized by radio and television hosts Antonio “El Gangster” Sanchez and Jose “Funky Joe” Vallenilla, as well as several unions, Puerto Ricans of various ideological bents took to the streets wearing white shirts symbolizing their desire for a halt to the stalemate between the opposition PNP and the ruling Popular Democratic Party.
The governor has said that the current financial crisis has been some 20 years in the making, although he said the PNP lawmakers, who hold majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, have the solution in their hands.
One of the main points of contention between the governor and Congress has been over whether a retroactive tax hike should be implemented to mitigate the island’s budget problems and, if so, how high it should be, a dispute that has lingered for about a year and a half.
Acevedo opposes the House plan for a retroactive tax increase, questioning the legality of such a move.
Puerto Rico’s commonwealth government has a payroll of some $500 million that, at least for now, will not be circulating in the island’s economy, affecting businesses, banks and other private-sector enterprises. EFE
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