New York – The fourth State of the State Message from the Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, focused on the development and economic reconstruction measures that his Administration has implemented to face current and future challenges.
“We are rebuilding in all areas. “We have rebuilt our economy, we are rebuilding our infrastructure, and we are promoting social reconstruction to restore our values and achieve a society of equity,” said the president yesterday surrounded by members of the island’s Legislature in the Capitol.
“The state of our economy is strong and progressing. We leave the government bankruptcy behind. “We are meeting our financial obligations and our pensions,” he alleged.
“Our fiscal stability is proven and maintaining it is essential for our future,” said the governor.
Pierluisi added that the territory is laying the groundwork for the Fiscal Control Board (FOMBPR), created as a result of the PROMESA Act in the US Congress, to leave the island following the restructuring of PR’s debt.
Although it is true that the Pierluisi Administration has defended the reduction of nearly 80% of the debt of the Electric Power Authority (PREPA) contained in the Debt Adjustment Plan (PAD) that the Board recently presented to the judge Laura Taylor Swain as part of the Title 3 bankruptcy process, the foregoing does not guarantee that the litigation will end in the coming months or years. In fact, some experts have already anticipated that the lawsuit could reach the First Circuit of Appeals in Boston due to the disagreement of several parties in the case.
That PR concludes the process in court does not necessarily imply that the Board leaves the island. PROMESA stipulates that the government of Puerto Rico must comply with four balanced budgets, but the figures on both sides do not always coincide.
In his speech, the chief executive also attributed to his government a 7.6% increase in economic activity between 2021 and the present.
However, in this regard, an analysis by the local newspaper El Nuevo Día indicates that the governor did not specify the origin of that data. The 10-year Planning Board (JP) projections show that for the last fiscal year the economy measured by Gross Domestic Product grew 6.7%, while the Gross Domestic Product was estimated at 5.9% for fiscal year 2023.
Another point that the governor highlighted is that labor participation has risen almost 5% and that the unemployment rate is at 5.7% compared to 9% at the beginning of 2021.
Pierluisi also highlighted the push in the area of tourism; specifically, the record of 12 million passengers transiting through the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan. Regarding exports, the official said that they increased 6.5% since 2022 and reached $63,000 million.
I am pleased to announce that in 2023, exports reached $63 billion, an increase of 6.5% from 2022.
SNAP request for Puerto Rico
Regarding matters that have directly to do with the management of authorities in Washington DC such as Congress, the president highlighted the changes they are making at the local level in the event of a transition from the Nutrition Assistance Program (PAN) to the Nutrition Assistance Program. Supplemental (SNAP).
It should be noted that, although there is a feasibility study for a program change so that payments to PR for food assistance are equal to those of the states, any alteration must be approved as part of the Farm Bill they are discussing. currently Democrats and Republicans in the US Legislature.
Brief call for statehood
In that sense, Pierluisi, of the New Progressive Party (PNP), took the opportunity to highlight the benefits of statehood, a status ideology in which he believes as a means to address disparities in federal programs such as the one mentioned.
“Our economy is growing with the support of a federal administration that has put Puerto Rico among its priorities. But it is only with statehood that we will be able to ensure that this support is permanent and does not depend on a friendly administration versus another that is not… the well-being of our people is improving, but we still suffer discrimination in health programs such as Medicaid and Medicare; Supplemental Social Security; nutritional assistance for our boys and girls, our seniors and people with disabilities; In short, in all the rights and benefits that we deserve as American citizens,” he declared.
The reconstruction processes
Regarding post-hurricane reconstruction with funds such as those allocated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Pierluisi indicated that 4,432 are in the design stage for an investment of $4,800 million, and 4,819 are in the construction stage.
He added that, as a result of the intervention of the Office of Reconstruction-Recovery and Resilience (COR3), and its capital advance disbursement program, $8.9 billion of FEMA funds have been provided for permanent works.
Last February, the federal Comptroller General’s Office (GAO) reported that, as of June 2023, PR had spent 8% of the reconstruction funds granted by FEMA.
Regarding the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (AAA), he specified that there are more than 100 active projects throughout Puerto Rico that represent an investment of $1.5 billion that includes FEMA funds.
In the case of the Highways and Transportation Authority (ACT), he said that all available funds have been obligated and there are 654 works in progress with an investment of $1,000 million.
The governor also mentioned the provision of renewable energy systems to 4,200 SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) through the “Energy Support” program with federal funds administered by the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC).
The governor also dedicated part of his speech to measures taken in favor of the elderly population, whose trend has been increasing in recent years due to the migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States.
Pierluisi pointed out that the funds provided to municipalities for housekeeper programs were increased from $900,000 to $5 million. He also announced that the Department of Families will increase subsidies for people residing in long-term care facilities from about $1,300 to $1,900 per month.
One of the main problems with this last incentive is not only the small amount, but also that the administrators and owners of the centers complain about the delay in the disbursement of payments by the agency.
It should be noted that, regarding the housekeeper program, funding comes from the federal government through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
Reactions to the message
Pierluisi’s message was given two months before the primaries and seven months before the general elections.
Among those present was precisely Pierluisi’s primary opponent for the governorship, Jenniffer González.
González, still a resident commissioner in Washington, said she was left wanting the president to address the energy and status issue in depth.
“I had the expectation that the energy issue would be addressed, that it would be discussed how the generating plants were going to be improved so that there would not be so many blackouts. I had the expectation that the call for a status plebiscite would be called in November; That if the governor calls a plebiscite, the first to support that will be me, regardless of whether we are competing in a primary in June. I had the expectation that they would talk about what the plan was going to be to stop the increase in the electricity bill… I wanted to hear how the reconstruction is going in the southern area,” said the commissioner, who added that it was her role to go to the event.
González has been quite critical in recent months of the management and institutional position of the Administration to which she belongs regarding the Authority’s Debt Adjustment Plan and the contemplated increases in the electricity rate to pay bondholders.
For his part, the president of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), Jesús Manuel Ortiz, downplayed the message under the argument that many of the projects mentioned by Pierluisi have either not started or are incomplete.
“The country is not going to believe either the governor or his party in the story he wanted to present to Puerto Ricans today. Today the governor here, applauded by his party, in the presence of the resident commissioner, has once again tried to deceive the people of Puerto Rico. they will not achieve. Today we witnessed another empty, contradictory and unreal message. Today we hear the story of a government that, in its last year, comes to announce for the fourth time a string of projects that have not started or are incomplete,” he said at a press conference along with other PPD leaders.
Ortiz spoke, for example, about the reconstruction of the electrical grid and the proposed increases in the bill.
“The country experiences these priority or incomplete projects every day. Repair of the electrical system, incomplete. Today it embraced the increase in the rate when it embraces the Debt Adjustment Plan of the Electric Power Authority, with constant blackouts, without supervision of LUMA. There is not a single mention of LUMA in that message and with nine rate increases so far this four-year period,” he noted.
“In health, incomplete. 200,000 people out due to Medicaid certification because of their own government’s bureaucratic processes. Thousands of older adults abandoned in their hospitals, a record of complaints of abandonment of older adults who are not cared for due to lack of resources…” he continued.
Leaders such as María de Lourdes Santiago Negrón, senator of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), questioned Pierluisi’s proposal that the Fiscal Control Board, the federal body that presented the adjustment plan for PREPA, leave the island soon. “Does the governor really think that the Fiscal Control Board is going to leave because he wants it to leave? The Board has put in writing, in I don’t know how many letters, that none of the approved budgets satisfy the balanced budget criterion and that, therefore, they are going to stay here, as long as things persist as we have seen them until now, of indefinitely. It seems to me that it is a lack of respect for the country that the governor dares to ignore that specific statement,” said the minority legislator.
For her part, Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, senator and spokesperson for the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC), called the message political.
“Without a doubt, it has been a purely political message. The social reconstruction of the country is not done with slogans. A resistant country is not made with slogans. It is not done with slogans to really build that can use its natural resources. Nor is a country made with slogans towards the future that Puerto Rico needs.”
It should be noted that, contrary to other occasions, there were no notable protest demonstrations. However, among the crowd, a person was seen with a sign that read: “Pierluisi, the majority of the people of Puerto Rico do not believe you.”