Puerto Rico rejects pension cuts sought by federal board
Source: Associated Press
The Associated Press
Danica Coto
March 23, 2018
6:15 PM EDT
Last Updated
March 23, 2018
6:44 PM EDT
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Puerto Rico government officials said Friday they will not bow to demands from a federal control board overseeing the islands finances that they implement cuts to a struggling public pension system as part of an upcoming fiscal plan to help pull the U.S. territory out of an economic crisis.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello told reporters 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 governors representative to the board, defended the governments revised fiscal plan and said it would generate a $5.5 billion surplus in upcoming 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.
Were not talking about business as usual here in Puerto Rico, Sobrino said. The fiscal plan recognizes the islands fiscal and demographic spiral. If we dont stop it, the game is over. Puerto Rico will be a footnote in the history of the Caribbean.
Read more: http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/puerto-rico-rejects-pension-cuts-sought-by-federal-board
PatrickforO
(14,573 posts)from honest workers. Those people have worked hard for their pensions. They were promised that money would be there for them when they could no longer work and now the capitalist parasites of Wall Street and their Republican shills are trying to rip them off.
As Ross Perot would say, "You can hear the giant sucking sound..." as capitalist greed strips ordinary people of all the benefits it can. Anytime a working stiff seems to be happy and have some reasonable economic security, you can COUNT on a capitalist Wall Street weasel to come along and try to nickel and dime that security to death.
Because hey, profits are always more important than our puny lives, eh?
Submariner
(12,504 posts)Island.
The hedge fund managers are going to fuck this island over bigtime.
https://theintercept.com/2018/03/20/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-recovery/
Invasion of the Puertopians
Earlier this month, in San Juans ornate Condado Vanderbilt Hotel, the dream of Puerto Rico as a for-profit utopia was on full display. From March 14 to 16, the hotel played host to Puerto Crypto, a three-day immersive pitch for blockchain and cryptocurrencies with a special focus on why Puerto Rico will be the epicenter of this multitrillion-dollar market.
Among the speakers was Yaron Brook, chair of the Ayn Rand Institute, who presented on How Deregulation and Blockchain Can Make Puerto Rico the Hong Kong of the Caribbean. Last year, Brook announced that he had personally relocated from California to Puerto Rico, where he claims he went from paying 55 percent of his income in taxes to less than 4 percent.
Elsewhere on the island, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans were still living by flashlight, many were still dependent on FEMA for food aid, and the islands main mental health hotline was still overwhelmed with callers. But inside the sold-out Vanderbilt conference, there was little space for that kind of downer news. Instead, the 800 attendees fresh from a choice between sunrise yoga and meditation and morning surf heard from top officials like Department of Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Manuel Laboy Rivera about all the things Puerto Rico is doing to turn itself into the ultimate playground for newly minted cryptocurrency millionaires and billionaires.
Its a pitch the Puerto Rican government has been making to the private jet set for a few years now, though until recently it was geared mainly to the financial sector, Silicon Valley, and others capable of working wherever they can access data. The pitch goes like this: You dont have to relinquish your U.S. citizenship or even technically leave the United States to escape its tax laws, regulations, or the cold Wall Street winters. You just have to move your companys address to Puerto Rico and enjoy a stunningly low 4 percent corporate tax rate a fraction of what corporations pay even after Donald Trumps recent tax cut. Any dividends paid by a Puerto Rico-based company to Puerto Rican residents are also tax-free, thanks to a law passed in 2012 called Act 20.
Conference attendees also learned that if they move their own residency to Puerto Rico, they will not only be able to surf every single morning, but also win vast personal tax advantages. Thanks to a clause in the federal tax code, U.S. citizens who move to Puerto Rico can avoid paying federal income tax on any income earned in Puerto Rico. And thanks to another local law, Act 22, they can also cash in on a slew of tax breaks and total tax waivers that includes paying zero capital gains tax and zero tax on interest and dividends sourced to Puerto Rico. And much more all part of a desperate bid to attract capital to an island that is functionally bankrupt.
To quote billionaire hedge fund magnate John Paulson, owner of the hotel in which Puerto Crypto took place, You can essentially minimize your taxes in a way that you cant do anywhere else in the world. (Or, as the tax dodgers website Premier Offshore put it: All the other tax havens might as well just close down.
Puerto Rico just hit it out of the park
did the best set ever and dropped the mic.)
With just a 3 1/2-hour commute from New York City to San Juan (or less, depending on the private jet), all it takes to get in on this scheme is agreeing to spend 183 days of the year in Puerto Rico in other words, winter. Puerto Rican residents, its worth noting, are not only excluded from these programs, but they also pay very high local taxes.
Manuel Laboy used the conference to announce the creation of a new advisory council to attract blockchain businesses to the island. And he extolled the lifestyle bonuses that awaited attendees if they followed the self-described Puertopians who have already taken the plunge. As Laboy told The Intercept, for the 500 to 1,000 high-net-worth individuals who relocated since the tax holidays were introduced five years ago many of them opting for gated communities with their own private schools its all about living in a tropical island, with great people, with great weather, with great piña coladas. And why not? Youre gonna be, like, in this endless vacation in a tropical place, where youre actually working. That combination, I think, is very powerful.
The official slogan of this new Puerto Rico? Paradise Performs. To underscore the point, conference attendees were invited to a Cryptocurrency Honey Party, with pollen-themed drinks and snacks, and a chance to hang out with Ingrid Suarez, Miss Teen Panama 2013 and upcoming contestant on Caribbeans Next Top Model.
snip >
TexasTowelie
(112,165 posts)Randy was the congressman from Lubbock.