Legislature shelves the Oversight Board’s budget

The Legislature will evaluate Governor Ricardo Rosselló’s budget even though the Financial Oversight Board (JCF) presented its own document and declared the Government’s incomplete and inconsistent with the fiscal plan, Metro Puerto Rico reported on May 30, 2019.

Fortaleza Public Affairs secretary Anthony Maceira said attention would go to the budget of “whoever sets Puerto Rico’s public policy, which is the elected officials,” after a legislative conference at La Fortaleza. He explained that the PROMESA-created board presented its budget but has no authority to file it: the House speaker, Carlos “Johnny” Méndez, must sign it, and Méndez said he will not.

The Board’s General Fund budget is $9.1 billion, $570 million less than the governor’s. The document includes cuts at the Department of Education, the State Elections Commission (CEE) and municipalities.

Rosselló defended his budget and said it included explanatory notes —“tomes”— justifying each line against the past 10 years of spending and projecting the next three budgets. “The Board rejected the budget we sent with multiple details… Here one has to ask what the justification is for insisting on this reduction,” he added, according to a Cybernews account cited by Metro.

Méndez said the governor’s budget message would not be delivered that year in the Capitol because of repairs to the Chamber roof, and would take place the following week outside the building — possibly the Convention Center or another site outside San Juan. Proposed by the Board is not certified or disbursed; refusing to file does not void PROMESA’s certification authority.