FMCDH(BITS)
Posted on 04/30/2006 10:22:11 AM PDT by Graybeard58
MIAMI -- Up to 50,000 Puerto Ricans facing massive layoffs because of a $1 billion government budget deficit marched to the capitol building in San Juan Friday to demand a solution to the fiscal crisis.
The protest stretched over three miles. Armed with signs and T-shirts that declared, "Puerto Rico Shouts!," civil servants, students and union members focused their ire on Puerto Rico's House of Representatives.
The opposition-dominated House has refused Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila's request for a $638 million line of credit to keep the government afloat until June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
"We're calling for them to reach an agreement, that they sign all that they need to sign so the Puerto Rican worker is not thrown out into the street and left without work," San Juan teacher Nilda Marrero told The Associated Press. "They must leave this game behind."
The governor ordered 43 of 118 government agencies closed next Monday, saying public coffers have run out of cash.
Acevedo insists the only answer is the loan from the Government Development Bank, which would be paid back with a 7 percent sales tax.
The Senate approved a $531 million loan on Monday, but the House has refused, arguing that drastic budget cuts and tax reform are the only solution. The House has proposed a 4 percent tax instead.
Late Thursday, the House approved the use of $114.5 million from emergency funds, which the governor's office has said is not nearly enough.
The Senate meets again late today, with officials hoping for an 11th-hour agreement.
"The governor has been very successful at projecting this as an issue where the legislature is at fault," said economist Carlos Colon, a New Progressive Party senate advisor. "The governor has to show some flexibility. If he were to close the government with a viable solution on the table, he's going to find public perception turning against him."
The New Progressive Party, which advocates statehood for Puerto Rico, insists the governor created the crisis by overspending.
The use of $114 million would cover paychecks for at least a few weeks and force the governor to make drastic budget cuts.
"I am ready to sign the $114 million, but that doesn't resolve the situation," Acevedo told Puerto Rican TV and radio stations. "We have to keep up the pressure. The solution is the loan with guaranteed payment. I can sign everything they approved, and nothing changes Monday's scenario."
The scenario is dire: 572,000 schoolchildren would be shut out of class, and 75,758 public school employees out of work. A total of about 95,762 public employees would be laid off and many more would see pay cuts.
Emergency services such as jails, police and hospitals would run using the funds from the shuttered agencies.
Great, that means more of them will be going to New York.....
Man you took the words right out of my mouth. But you can toss in S FL there as well.
AMEN! Maybe we can give Puerto Rico their independence!
Send in Bill Clinton. He'll make sure the interns don't get bored.
Hmm, perhaps they could have used the money from that Navy base they forced to close....
When we honeymooned in PR the tour guide kept proclaiming "You don't want to know how much money the US sends us"! The tour bus ran into 3 parked cars and one stop sign during our tour, and never stopped. It turned my stomach and convinced me to never vote to make them a state.
That's nothing. Shelby County, Tennessee is in debt by that much and more. The rest of Tennesee COMBINED doesn't have that kind of debt problem.
Why?
Nah, they will become our 51st state then get federal bailout money.
I think this has been in the works for quite a while.
ALL future Dems. They may become the BIGGEST welfare state in the union. Hawaii has that "honor" now. How do you say "Aloha" in español?
Probably one of the most insightful proclamations ever penned.
Here in Massachusetts, citizens voted to cut state income taxes in a binding referendum vote. The one party state legislature ignored the voters. Here in Massachusetts, the State Supreme Court decided on its own that homosexual marriage is legal. The elected representatives in the legislature in a majority vote accepted this. The elected and appointed officials in the perverted Democrat Party are fighting tooth and nail to prevent homosexual marriage from coming up as a binding referendum vote.
I would not be to quick to lambaste democracy seen how our representatives do what special interests want which is quite often against the sensible will of the people.
Being from Massachusetts myself, your preaching to the choir.
It worked in France.
Tell me about it. I live there.
It has almost 100,000 public employees and is one billion in debt?
Clean up your socialist mess before you even begin to ask for statehood.
here are a few facts about puerto rico
white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%, black 8%, Amerindian 0.4%, Asian 0.2%, mixed and other 10.9%
plus, 500 million in deficit spending is probably less than the US govt. by whatever percentage or per capita measure you want to use.
There are so many reasons. Chief among them is continued fiscal mismanagement. The "leadership" of Shelby County has gotten us in this condition through years of bad decisions. There are two gonerning bodies in Shelby County, the City mayor and city council and the County mayor and county commission. Duplication of services means money spent on dual saleries means less money for needed projects. As a result, taxes are raised to pay for those projects. What can't be paid for by taxes is borrowed form different sources. That has occurred for so many years, the interest on the initial debt has mushroomed to where the county's debt has risen to a illion with a B! Couple all that with the increasing exodus from Memphis and Shelby County due to Mayor "King" Willie Herrenton's mismanagement of city funds and other bs and the stage has been set for our current financial situation. The eternal borrowing of money to pay of mismanaged projects leads to more intrest on the debt and that adds up. That in a very small nutshell is the reason.
Hola.
Aw, do not worry we are pumping food stamps and social security into that garden of eden like money grew on trees. They do not want to be a free country because the teet would go dry and they would have to get along on their own. Sad situation.
Wrong. Hola simply means hello.
"Aloha" is used for "hello" AND "goodbye."
Ummm, that was rhetoric, since there IS NO translation for "aloha." It's like "Namaste" in India, used for both "hello" and "goodbye."
I didn't think I needed to put < sarcasm >.
Puerto Rican government, $1 billion in red, may shut down
Would anybody notice?
Can you say, "Balanced Budget Ammendment?"
Bullsquat....
America had decided to foster and accommodate the Balkanization of America -- rather that INSIST on assimilation...
Following the "Leftist Liberal Progressive" path...has in fact led America to the brink of self destruction....
I hope the bastards have planned a PC funeral..
Semper Fi
I am born and raised in Puerto Rico. I left as soon as I could, after college, and joined the US Air Force in 1993. I have been back home exactly 4 times since then, an average of 5 days at a time...that's all I can stand.
I have repeatedly asked my sisters to leave, and come to the mainland. One of them did, the others are still there, and 2 of the 3 still there are government employees. It still baffles me that they have chosen to stay.
Having said all that, the current situation is due to massive state government spending, buoyed by massive and oppressive taxation and an ever-growing bureaucracy. The largest employer in PR IS the government, by far. They have gotten themselves into this hole, and now the government employees are demanding a continuation of the policies that have gotten PR into this mess in the first place.
It is sad...one more reason I refuse to ever move back to PR.
I have been to each of the places you have mentioned and can think of very few similarities and great differences.
Perhaps, you could fill me on you opinion.
Puerto is One Billion in Debt while the United States that is largely ruled by white people is Five Trillion in debt?
Do you realize the difference between One Billion and Five Trillion?
Hope y'all paid your taxes, 'cause if you didn't, we'd be....uhmm....is "broker" a word?
FMCDH(BITS)
Puerto Rico going to way of General Motors...interesting.
"A-hola"?
FMCDH(BITS)
What do you mean by "similar persuasion?"
California and NY next. Then Washington.
Debt can be measured (good vs bad debt) by the ability for one to pay it off. Can Puerto Rico pay off anything?
It was exactly the same in 1973. - and I felt the exact same way.
Yes, they, like Jlo may call themselves white. - So do hispanics.
Can't the just raise the debt ceiling?
"...Can you say, "Balanced Budget Ammendment?"..."
Yea, I can. However, the a@%wipes in Shelby County/City of Memphis governments refuse to. That being the case, my wife and I can't wait to join the exodus from this fair and debt-ridden county. We are sick of the political incest that goes on here.
well, you may be better off than I. This burg does have a balanced budget - and the highest tax rate in VA.
Yep as a fellow Shelby Country resident (I live in Memphis), I have seen my property taxes more than double in the last 15 years, with less and less to show for it.
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