Fortuño's economic and fiscal reconstruction plan
The plan includes a number of initiatives to jump-start the local economy. Among them are:
- $180 million to guarantee loans to small and midsize businesses at risk of reducing employment or closing operations for lack of liquidity. The program will be managed by the Economic Development Bank and is expected to provide loans of $5,000 to $250,000 and benefit more than 7,600 local businesses.
- $125 million for infrastructure development and capital-improvement projects in all municipalities, with $100 million managed directly by the municipalities.
- A $300 bonus for everyone whose annual income is less than $20,000 and filed a return for the 2008 tax year. This plan should benefit more than 106,000 pensioners.
- A program to assist homeowners in danger of losing their residence because of a job loss or their income was reduced 20% or more. Through the program, homeowners would be able to have their monthly mortgage payments reduced, whether through an interest-rate reduction or an extension of the terms of the existing loan. Some 5,000 families are expected to benefit from this measure.
- A $24 million contribution to establish a $240 million fund with the private sector to assist eligible families to obtain $25,000 toward the acquisition of a new home or $10,000 for an existing home . The money would be used as a down payment and would be obtained through a second mortgage, on which homebuyers wouldn’t make payments on the principal or interest for the first 10 years. Through this initiative, some 8,000 families would be able to acquire a new home and another 4,000 an existing home.
- A $68 million fund to provide interim construction financing aimed at low-cost and social-interest housing. This fund should help in the construction of 6,500 social-interest homes.
- The Criollo Economic-Stimulus package assigns $15 million, in addition to the $40 million provided from the federal stimulus package, for job relocation and retraining.
- Legislation to foster the use of Public-Private Partnerships for the development of infrastructure projects and to improve services rendered by the government. Through this partnership, the government would seek greater private-sector investment in infrastructure so government agencies could dedicate more of their scare resources for better direct services to citizens.
- Payment of $750 million to government suppliers, in addition to the $485 million already paid to bring payments up-to-date for special education teachers, therapists, school transportation and other suppliers who were waiting to be paid for services rendered. Debt to government suppliers was more than $1 billion.