Vote delayed on Puerto Rico’s fiscal plan

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico government officials said Friday that they will not bow to demands from a federal control board overseeing the island’s finances that they implement cuts to a public pension system as part of a fiscal plan to help pull the U.S. territory out of an economic crisis.

Gov. Ricardo Rossello told reporters that the biggest disagreement between his administration and the board is over a proposed average 10 percent cut to pensions of more than $1,000 a month paid by a system facing nearly $50 billion in liabilities.

Christian Sobrino, the governor’s representative to the board, defended the government’s revised fiscal plan and said it would generate a $5.5 billion surplus in coming years and help reverse the economic slump while avoiding the elimination of vacation or sick days and reductions in maternity leave, among other things he said the board has proposed.

“We’re not talking about business as usual here in Puerto Rico,” Sobrino said. “The fiscal plan recognizes the island’s fiscal and demographic spiral. If we don’t stop it, the game is over. Puerto Rico will be a footnote in the history of the Caribbean.”

The board had been expected to vote on the revised fiscal plan Monday, but it announced Friday that it was postponing the vote, without providing a new date. The board has the power to implement its own measures if it disagrees with those proposed by the government.

Sobrino warned that the board is considering some measures that would have a detrimental effect on an island mired in an 11-year-old recession as it struggles to rebound from Hurricane Maria and restructure a portion of its $73 billion public debt.

Some members of the U.S. Congress also weighed in Friday on the upcoming fiscal plan, with 35 of them signing a letter voicing opposition to privatizing much of Puerto Rico’s prisons department. They said the move would increase the island’s deficit and lead to higher rates of recidivism.

Many in the U.S. territory of 3.3 million people are wary of the overall proposed fiscal plan and fear they will struggle economically more than before even as they try to recuperate from Hurricane Maria. Nearly 100,000 power customers remain in the dark six months later, and more than 130,000 people are estimated to have left the island since the storm, according to one study.