El número de plazas en la universidad se redujo en un 40% en Cuba. Tito Kayak, calle 13, waldemiro...arranquen a protestar esta injusticia en los derechos de los jovenes que queremos estudiar de gratis....vayan expliquenles acerca de las becas pell, que pagaron por sus estudios universitarios en Puerto Rico, y lo injusto que es para los estudiantes puertorriquenos ya que los chavos no le dan pa comprarse un carro y almorzar, y que tienen y que trabajar para poder estudiar. Todo esto sin ustedes tener que pagar un chavo de contribuciones federales. Vayan corran!!!!! Estudiantes unidos jamas seran vencidos, adelante...loos vuelos a la habana salen ya de muchos sitios....y con su pasaporte americano no deben tener problemas. Ahora con permiso......JAAAAAAAAAAA jAAAAAAAAAAAAA jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa jajaaja ajajajajajajajajjaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa jjaaaaaa.
http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/p_contenido.php?q=nodo/193407/BBC%20Mundo/Cuba-quiere-revolucionar-su-sistema-educativo
BBC Mundo 21 Mar 2011 | 02:06 pm - Por BBC Mundo
El gobierno del presidente Raúl Castro pone en práctica una transformación total del sistema de educación nacional en Cuba. El elemento clave del cambio radica en ligar la formación de los jóvenes cubanos a las necesidades de la economía y de la sociedad.
En el terreno práctico, esto implica una reducción del número de plazas en las universidades, priorizando aquellas carreras que demandan las empresas, aumenta la formación de técnicos medios y crea escuelas para calificar obreros.
Hasta hace unos años, el criterio que prevalecía en Cuba era formar a la mayor cantidad de universitarios, política que -según los críticos- deformó la economía al provocar la pérdida de gran parte de la mano de obra calificada.
Además, los observadores afirman que dar trabajo a esa enorme masa de profesionales implicó inflar las plantillas de todas las empresas, invertir la pirámide laboral con un crecimiento desproporcionado del personal administrativo y reducir la productividad nacional.
Menos plazas universitarias
Para dirigir la reforma fue nombrado ministro de Educación Superior, Miguel Díaz Canel. Se trata de un miembro de cuadro joven del Partido Comunista con un buen historial, labrado mientras estuvo al frente de las provincias de Villa Clara y Holguín.
Su visión de la reforma se sintetiza en que la universidad debe demostrar "que el esfuerzo que se hace en la formación de profesionales, se reporta después en beneficio de las comunidades, en función de la solución de sus problemas".
Según Díaz Canel, Cuba vive la paradoja de haber graduado más de un millón de universitarios y tener un déficit de 111.000 profesionales de disciplinas tecnológicas y ciencias básicas. Por lo que recalcó que, en el futuro, la matrícula irá en correspondencia con las demandas de la economía.
Por lo pronto, el número de plazas en la universidad se redujo en un 40% y las carreras de humanidades son las más afectadas. En su lugar se amplían las posibilidades de formarse como técnico medio y se abren cursos para calificar a obreros.
Formando obreros
Alexander Masoya, director nacional de la formación técnico-profesional del Ministerio de Educación, le dijo a BBC Mundo que han cambiado los programas de estudio para agilizar la formación de técnicos medios y obreros.
Antes "graduábamos a los estudiantes de 'bachiller técnico', pero para eso había que darles un número de horas de asignaturas de formación general y eso iba en detrimento del número de horas específicas de su especialidad", explicó.
Otro elemento clave es la formación de obreros calificados, abandonada durante décadas. "El objetivo es invertir la pirámide y, desde que empezamos la matrícula, no paró de crecer: 7.000 alumnos el pasado año y se duplicó en 2011", afirmó Masoya.
Añadió que aún enfrentan problemas. "Esta educación es la más cara de todas porque se enseña haciendo. Por esa razón, vinculamos a los estudiantes con la producción en unas 3.000 'aulas anexas' dentro de las empresas".
De todas formas, la pirámide sigue invertida, aún existe una matrícula 15 veces mayor de técnicos medios que de obreros. Masoya nos explica que tiene que ver con el ideario social y asegura que "será un proceso de varios años".
Educación y frustración
Emilio Hernández es subdirector del Instituto Politécnico "Villena Revolución", donde también hay un 80% de los alumnos que estudian para ser técnicos medios contra menos de un 20% que se convertirán en obreros agropecuarios.
La formación de "los obreros calificados está vinculada a un área practica del trabajo, la base del conocimiento es el saber hacer", le explicó a BBC Mundo, y detalló que se les enseña a "criar animales, sembrar, cosechar, producir materia orgánica, el riego y demás servicios técnicos".
El proceso será largo. En el politécnico conversamos con Carlos Morelos, quien nos dijo que es uno de los tantos alumnos que sueñan con terminar el técnico medio para entrar a la universidad, una meta que la sociedad metió muy dentro de la cabeza de los cubanos.
Durante décadas ésa fue la Meca hacia la que se dirigían. El gobierno creyó que los ciudadanos agradecerían el acceso masivo, incluso si después no podían ejercer su profesión.
Sin embargo, no pocos terminaron sintiéndose más frustrados que agradecidos.
Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta huelga. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta huelga. Mostrar todas las entradas
martes, 22 de marzo de 2011
jueves, 10 de marzo de 2011
La colonia de Puerto Rico bien administrada.
No me gusta que administren la colonia.
Yo en esto soy bien claro. No me gusta la condición colonial. Estipulo que las dos condiciones y unicas condiciones validas son la independencia (crecí y todavía peleo con un papa pelú y alborotoso, que de seguro estaría con pancartas en la UPR hoy si fuera joven). Me se todos los argumentos. Pero los hechos son los hechos. EL crédito a mejorado, las finanzas han mejorado, se ve un orden y un plan. Al menos en lo financiero, Carlos Garcia es lo mejor que le pudo haber pasado a Fortuno. Lo demás pues cuando tienes 72 municipios, 132 agencias, y la infraestructura que eso requiere pues no es fácil. etc. etc. etc Es triste no hay otra palabra, triste que el fanatismo ideológico no nos permita aceptar y felicitar al que hace algo bien porque no piensa como yo. Lo de la corrupción siempre va a pasar, y pasa mas cuando se intentan hacer cosas, cuando inviertes, cuando construyes,Mi salud, Choliseos, Trenes, supertubos, gasoducto, infraestructura en grande, necesaria. Como decía mi padre pelú "asi es la vida unos fallan y otros miran" Definitivamente el que no tira la bola al canasto, va a fallar menos que el que si hace lanzamientos al canasto. Pero no quiere decir que por fallar menos sea mejor jugador"
saludos,
La disidencia
Parezco fanatico de Fortuno, si supieran.....
Yo en esto soy bien claro. No me gusta la condición colonial. Estipulo que las dos condiciones y unicas condiciones validas son la independencia (crecí y todavía peleo con un papa pelú y alborotoso, que de seguro estaría con pancartas en la UPR hoy si fuera joven). Me se todos los argumentos. Pero los hechos son los hechos. EL crédito a mejorado, las finanzas han mejorado, se ve un orden y un plan. Al menos en lo financiero, Carlos Garcia es lo mejor que le pudo haber pasado a Fortuno. Lo demás pues cuando tienes 72 municipios, 132 agencias, y la infraestructura que eso requiere pues no es fácil. etc. etc. etc Es triste no hay otra palabra, triste que el fanatismo ideológico no nos permita aceptar y felicitar al que hace algo bien porque no piensa como yo. Lo de la corrupción siempre va a pasar, y pasa mas cuando se intentan hacer cosas, cuando inviertes, cuando construyes,Mi salud, Choliseos, Trenes, supertubos, gasoducto, infraestructura en grande, necesaria. Como decía mi padre pelú "asi es la vida unos fallan y otros miran" Definitivamente el que no tira la bola al canasto, va a fallar menos que el que si hace lanzamientos al canasto. Pero no quiere decir que por fallar menos sea mejor jugador"
saludos,
La disidencia
Parezco fanatico de Fortuno, si supieran.....
miércoles, 9 de marzo de 2011
martes, 8 de marzo de 2011
Cuanto cuesta estudiar en la universidad de Puerto Rico
Tuve que hacer el cálculo y escribirlo y aún sigo sin entender el problema.
UPR
$ 50.00 / crédito (cr.)
Este es el costo del crédito de estudios post graduados. El crédito regular es $45.00. Además que casi nadie se matricula en más de 16 créditos por semestre.
$ 5500.00 - beca (anual)
- 900.00 - matrícula 1 (18 cr.)
- 300.00 - libros 1
- 400.00 - cuota 1
- 900.00 - matrícula 2 (18 cr.)
- 300.00 - libros 2
- 400.00 - cuota 2
---------
$2300.00 (anual) - restante
UPR
$ 50.00 / crédito (cr.)
Este es el costo del crédito de estudios post graduados. El crédito regular es $45.00. Además que casi nadie se matricula en más de 16 créditos por semestre.
$ 5500.00 - beca (anual)
- 900.00 - matrícula 1 (18 cr.)
- 300.00 - libros 1
- 400.00 - cuota 1
- 900.00 - matrícula 2 (18 cr.)
- 300.00 - libros 2
- 400.00 - cuota 2
---------
$2300.00 (anual) - restante
domingo, 15 de noviembre de 2009
Puerto Rico Bonds Beat US States as Fortuno cuts
Buen articulo...lo que la prensa izquierdozzza de Puerto Rico no comenta......
Puerto Rico Bonds Beat U.S. States as Fortuno Cuts (Update1)
By Jerry Hart
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Governor Luis Fortuno’s declaration of a fiscal emergency hasn’t deterred investors from buying Puerto Rico’s bonds, whose 20 percent return this year beat debt indexes in every U.S. state tracked by Standard & Poor’s.
Keeping investors interested in the Commonwealth’s $47 billion of debt may depend on the Republican governor’s plan to cut a $3.2 billion budget deficit, revive an economy that shrank 5.5 percent in the last fiscal year and rescue a credit rating one level from high-risk, high-yield junk. Since taking office in January, Fortuno eliminated 22,500 government jobs, riling a constituency that makes up 30 percent of the labor force.
“I’m not here to win a popularity contest,” Fortuno, 49, said by telephone from San Juan during a national strike on Oct. 15, when protesters and police clashed outside the Fortress, his home in the old section of the walled capital founded by Spain in 1521. “I’m here to deliver results.”
Bonds of Puerto Rico, which was ceded to the U.S. in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, are exempt from taxes in any state, unlike most municipal debt. The securities have benefited from record cash flows into municipal-bond funds, masking an economy that contracted in the 12 months ended June 30 at twice the 2.4 percent forecast for the country as a whole in 2009, the median estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
‘Too Few Bonds’
“I’m happy to have them because there’s a lot of cash chasing too few bonds,” said Michael Walls, who manages the $533 million Municipal High Income Fund at Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. in Overland Park, Kansas. “The more dicey a credit is, the more it’s rallied.” His fund owns Puerto Rico securities backed by sales taxes.
The difference in yield between a 6.5 percent Puerto Rico sales-tax bond sold in June, rated A+ by S&P, and a Municipal Market Advisors’ index of 30-year AAA rated municipal securities narrowed to 45 basis points on Nov. 9 from 100 on Aug. 28, as investors drove prices of the Commonwealth’s securities up and interest rates down more than higher-rated debt. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.
The Commonwealth’s debt, including the sales-tax-backed and general-obligation securities rated BBB- by S&P, one step from non-investment grade, returned 20.1 percent this year through yesterday, according to the S&P Puerto Rico Municipal Bond Index. That’s a bigger gain than any of S&P’s 27 state indexes and compares with the 13.3 percent return for the S&P/Investortools Municipal Bond Main Index of all municipal debt, which rose 13.3 percent. S&P’s high-yield muni index increased 33.2 percent.
$55 Billion
A 5.75 percent Puerto Rico general-obligation bond due in 2038 that was priced earlier this month at a discount of 96.59 to yield 6 percent rose as high as 101.35 in the when-issued market to yield 5.57 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They were offered at 5.9 percent yesterday.
Debt of the Caribbean island, whose population of 4 million is about equal to Kentucky’s, is riding a rally in which investors poured a record $55 billion into municipal-bond mutual funds this year, according to the Investment Company Institute in Washington, D.C.
Fortuno’s so-called fiscal stabilization plan will have to show results soon to sustain the gains investors have recorded, said Matt Fabian, managing director at Municipal Market Advisors, a researcher in Concord, Massachusetts.
“You have a major implementation risk involving how well the plan will do,” Fabian said in an interview. “It’s not a credit that’s out of the woods yet.”
Fortuno, who earned a law degree from the University of Virginia, served as Puerto Rico’s non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington before winning the governorship a year ago with 53 percent of the votes.
Shrinking Payroll
He declared a fiscal emergency in March with a plan to curtail public spending, which has boosted borrowing to 83 percent of economic output, according to S&P. That is four times more than Massachusetts, which has more debt as a portion of GDP than any state, with 20 percent in 2007, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization.
Fortuno wants $2 billion of spending cuts, mostly through reductions in the Commonwealth’s payroll. He proposed deploying $6 billion of federal stimulus funds and $500 million from his government to employ fired workers on infrastructure projects while trying to lure private companies to maintain employment.
“We’re throwing almost $7 billion out there in the next few months, which is major for our size,” Fortuno said in an interview when he announced the effort.
Stabilization Fund
The governor’s fiscal plan will raise Puerto Rico’s jobless rate by 2 percentage points, said the Government Development Bank, the commonwealth’s borrowing agent. Unemployment was 16.2 percent in September, the highest since May 2006 and more than any state.
To support fired workers’ transition into private employment, Fortuno’s plan includes a $2.5 billion stabilization fund financed by sales-tax-backed bonds sold by the development bank. Carlos Garcia, president of the San Juan-based institution, said $1.5 billion for the fund was raised from a $5.3 billion series of bonds announced in June.
In the interview last month, Fortuno invoked memories of 2006, when government offices shut for more than two weeks until lawmakers negotiated a bailout from the development bank to plug a revenue shortfall.
“We don’t have a choice,” Fortuno said. “I’m not going to allow this place to close down like it did once.”
June Target
While Fortuno demands spending reductions, tax revenue is falling in the self-governing Commonwealth, whose residents pay only local income and sales taxes and no federal income levies. Collections dropped 5 percent in August from a year earlier, the eighth decline in 12 months, according to the development bank.
With unemployment rising and revenue declining, Fortuno suspended government job cuts short of his original target of 30,000, he said in an interview on Oct. 22 at a conference in Fajardo, 30 miles (49 kilometers) east of San Juan. Only $1.2 billion of the governor’s proposed spending reductions have been implemented, with the balance planned by the time the current fiscal year ends next June, the development bank said on Oct. 2.
Such delays aren’t surprising, said Horacio Aldrete- Sanchez, a Dallas-based S&P analyst.
“Balanced budgets won’t be achieved right away,” he said in an interview. “We always assumed it will take several years to achieve fiscal balance.”
Pharmaceutical Jobs
The island’s transformation from agriculture to one where manufacturing provided 46 percent of income in 2002 has stalled because of the global recession and the end of U.S. tax incentives that created 100,000 pharmaceutical jobs in the 1990s, said Miguel Soto-Class, executive director of the Center for the New Economy in San Juan, a private researcher.
More local enterprise is needed, especially tourism, which comprises 7 percent of the economy, he said.
“We consume things we don’t make with money that’s not ours, and you can’t grow an economy that way,” Soto-Class said. “We need a top-to-bottom reinvention of the taxing system to widen the tax base and lower rates.”
The development bank’s Economic Activity Index, which measures employment, cement sales, electricity and gas consumption, rose 0.8 percent in September from the previous month, the biggest gain since October 2006, the institution said Nov. 2. Still, investors are looking more toward reductions in the budget gap, spending and debt.
“The governor has said some strong things about how they’re going to reduce the deficit,” said Doug Nelson, a credit analyst at Waddell & Reed. “I’d like to believe him, but when you look at the history of Puerto Rico, they’ve had a lot of financial difficulties over the years.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jerry Hart in Miami at jhart@bloomberg.net.
Puerto Rico Bonds Beat U.S. States as Fortuno Cuts (Update1)
By Jerry Hart
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Governor Luis Fortuno’s declaration of a fiscal emergency hasn’t deterred investors from buying Puerto Rico’s bonds, whose 20 percent return this year beat debt indexes in every U.S. state tracked by Standard & Poor’s.
Keeping investors interested in the Commonwealth’s $47 billion of debt may depend on the Republican governor’s plan to cut a $3.2 billion budget deficit, revive an economy that shrank 5.5 percent in the last fiscal year and rescue a credit rating one level from high-risk, high-yield junk. Since taking office in January, Fortuno eliminated 22,500 government jobs, riling a constituency that makes up 30 percent of the labor force.
“I’m not here to win a popularity contest,” Fortuno, 49, said by telephone from San Juan during a national strike on Oct. 15, when protesters and police clashed outside the Fortress, his home in the old section of the walled capital founded by Spain in 1521. “I’m here to deliver results.”
Bonds of Puerto Rico, which was ceded to the U.S. in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, are exempt from taxes in any state, unlike most municipal debt. The securities have benefited from record cash flows into municipal-bond funds, masking an economy that contracted in the 12 months ended June 30 at twice the 2.4 percent forecast for the country as a whole in 2009, the median estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
‘Too Few Bonds’
“I’m happy to have them because there’s a lot of cash chasing too few bonds,” said Michael Walls, who manages the $533 million Municipal High Income Fund at Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. in Overland Park, Kansas. “The more dicey a credit is, the more it’s rallied.” His fund owns Puerto Rico securities backed by sales taxes.
The difference in yield between a 6.5 percent Puerto Rico sales-tax bond sold in June, rated A+ by S&P, and a Municipal Market Advisors’ index of 30-year AAA rated municipal securities narrowed to 45 basis points on Nov. 9 from 100 on Aug. 28, as investors drove prices of the Commonwealth’s securities up and interest rates down more than higher-rated debt. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.
The Commonwealth’s debt, including the sales-tax-backed and general-obligation securities rated BBB- by S&P, one step from non-investment grade, returned 20.1 percent this year through yesterday, according to the S&P Puerto Rico Municipal Bond Index. That’s a bigger gain than any of S&P’s 27 state indexes and compares with the 13.3 percent return for the S&P/Investortools Municipal Bond Main Index of all municipal debt, which rose 13.3 percent. S&P’s high-yield muni index increased 33.2 percent.
$55 Billion
A 5.75 percent Puerto Rico general-obligation bond due in 2038 that was priced earlier this month at a discount of 96.59 to yield 6 percent rose as high as 101.35 in the when-issued market to yield 5.57 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They were offered at 5.9 percent yesterday.
Debt of the Caribbean island, whose population of 4 million is about equal to Kentucky’s, is riding a rally in which investors poured a record $55 billion into municipal-bond mutual funds this year, according to the Investment Company Institute in Washington, D.C.
Fortuno’s so-called fiscal stabilization plan will have to show results soon to sustain the gains investors have recorded, said Matt Fabian, managing director at Municipal Market Advisors, a researcher in Concord, Massachusetts.
“You have a major implementation risk involving how well the plan will do,” Fabian said in an interview. “It’s not a credit that’s out of the woods yet.”
Fortuno, who earned a law degree from the University of Virginia, served as Puerto Rico’s non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington before winning the governorship a year ago with 53 percent of the votes.
Shrinking Payroll
He declared a fiscal emergency in March with a plan to curtail public spending, which has boosted borrowing to 83 percent of economic output, according to S&P. That is four times more than Massachusetts, which has more debt as a portion of GDP than any state, with 20 percent in 2007, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization.
Fortuno wants $2 billion of spending cuts, mostly through reductions in the Commonwealth’s payroll. He proposed deploying $6 billion of federal stimulus funds and $500 million from his government to employ fired workers on infrastructure projects while trying to lure private companies to maintain employment.
“We’re throwing almost $7 billion out there in the next few months, which is major for our size,” Fortuno said in an interview when he announced the effort.
Stabilization Fund
The governor’s fiscal plan will raise Puerto Rico’s jobless rate by 2 percentage points, said the Government Development Bank, the commonwealth’s borrowing agent. Unemployment was 16.2 percent in September, the highest since May 2006 and more than any state.
To support fired workers’ transition into private employment, Fortuno’s plan includes a $2.5 billion stabilization fund financed by sales-tax-backed bonds sold by the development bank. Carlos Garcia, president of the San Juan-based institution, said $1.5 billion for the fund was raised from a $5.3 billion series of bonds announced in June.
In the interview last month, Fortuno invoked memories of 2006, when government offices shut for more than two weeks until lawmakers negotiated a bailout from the development bank to plug a revenue shortfall.
“We don’t have a choice,” Fortuno said. “I’m not going to allow this place to close down like it did once.”
June Target
While Fortuno demands spending reductions, tax revenue is falling in the self-governing Commonwealth, whose residents pay only local income and sales taxes and no federal income levies. Collections dropped 5 percent in August from a year earlier, the eighth decline in 12 months, according to the development bank.
With unemployment rising and revenue declining, Fortuno suspended government job cuts short of his original target of 30,000, he said in an interview on Oct. 22 at a conference in Fajardo, 30 miles (49 kilometers) east of San Juan. Only $1.2 billion of the governor’s proposed spending reductions have been implemented, with the balance planned by the time the current fiscal year ends next June, the development bank said on Oct. 2.
Such delays aren’t surprising, said Horacio Aldrete- Sanchez, a Dallas-based S&P analyst.
“Balanced budgets won’t be achieved right away,” he said in an interview. “We always assumed it will take several years to achieve fiscal balance.”
Pharmaceutical Jobs
The island’s transformation from agriculture to one where manufacturing provided 46 percent of income in 2002 has stalled because of the global recession and the end of U.S. tax incentives that created 100,000 pharmaceutical jobs in the 1990s, said Miguel Soto-Class, executive director of the Center for the New Economy in San Juan, a private researcher.
More local enterprise is needed, especially tourism, which comprises 7 percent of the economy, he said.
“We consume things we don’t make with money that’s not ours, and you can’t grow an economy that way,” Soto-Class said. “We need a top-to-bottom reinvention of the taxing system to widen the tax base and lower rates.”
The development bank’s Economic Activity Index, which measures employment, cement sales, electricity and gas consumption, rose 0.8 percent in September from the previous month, the biggest gain since October 2006, the institution said Nov. 2. Still, investors are looking more toward reductions in the budget gap, spending and debt.
“The governor has said some strong things about how they’re going to reduce the deficit,” said Doug Nelson, a credit analyst at Waddell & Reed. “I’d like to believe him, but when you look at the history of Puerto Rico, they’ve had a lot of financial difficulties over the years.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jerry Hart in Miami at jhart@bloomberg.net.
Puerto Rico-Island paradise Tax shelter
Great article...
By Richard Rahn
Have you noticed that many politicians who have trouble dealing with reality also seem to prefer fantasyland when dealing with budgets?
Those on the left never stop claiming that problems will be solved if only tax rates are increased. Why then does California, with its 10.6 percent state income tax rate, have a huge budget deficit and a 12.2 percent unemployment rate, while Texas, which does not have a state income tax, enjoys a budget surplus and a below average unemployment rate of 8.2 percent?
Why then does nearly bankrupt Rhode Island with the eighth-highest overall state tax burden in the United States, including a 7.75 percent income tax rate, have a 13 percent unemployment rate, while South Dakota with the fourth-lowest state tax burden and no state income tax, have virtually full employment with only 4.8 percent unemployment?
New York politicians have been living in political fantasyland for many years. Upper-income people living in New York City have faced the highest state and local income tax rates in the country (over 12 percent). Recent studies show high-income earners are in mass flight from New York to friendlier tax environments. The rational thing for New York politicians to do would be to cut tax rates to make New York more competitive; but no, they increased taxes on the top earners (many of whom continue to pack their bags).
It is not only politicians who live in fantasyland, but others as well, such as some labor leaders. The new (in office since January) Republican governor of Puerto Rico, Luis G. Fortuno, inherited a budget deficit of $3.2 billion, which is larger than any state budget in the United States on a per capita basis.
For many years, Puerto Rico has suffered from bloated government with five times as many government workers per capita than California. Seventy percent of the budget goes for government salaries and benefits.
Mr. Fortuno has had little choice but to take drastic action to keep the government from going bankrupt and losing its credit rating. He has already laid off 4,000 government employees, and he plans to lay off another 17,000 this week.
As would be expected, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who brought on a good part of the crisis through its excessive employment and wage demands, is now trying to prevent the governor from doing what is needed.
The SEIU has yet to learn that a parasite that kills its host soon finds it has no place to live (work) - just ask the auto union. Unlike the governor, the SEIU and the others continue to live in fantasyland, ignoring the fact that the cookie jar is empty.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has a long history of confusing facts with fiction, this past week added to the administration's claim that "nearly 650,000" jobs have been created or saved by the stimulus package. He said the recovery plan "is operating as advertised" and is on target to reach the president's goal.
In reply, the highly respected economist, Alan Meltzer, who has a long history of being able to distinguish between facts and fiction, said: "The administration can make up any number it pleases. The number has no meaning. The Council of Economic Advisers gets a number for jobs saved using the same model that Dr. Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein used when they forecast that the $787 billion stimulus program would keep the worst unemployment rate in this recession at about 8 percent. But as we all know, since that bill became law, our economy has shed some 3 million jobs and the unemployment rate is nearing double digits."
Ironically, the Obama administration and the politicians who run New York, California, etc., may ultimately help Mr. Fortuno by driving many of their highest-earning and most productive citizens to Puerto Rico.
Mr. Fortuno has made it clear that he believes the key to solving Puerto Rico's economic problems is to reduce the size of the government and take its foot off the windpipe of the private sector. He told me at a breakfast meeting last week that he wants to reform the tax system and reduce rates for everyone.
Any American citizen (which includes all native-born Puerto Ricans) who resides in Puerto Rico pays income taxes to the Puerto Rican, not to the U.S., government. The maximum income tax rate in Puerto Rico is now 33 percent, just a couple of points lower than the U.S. federal rate.
But if Mr. Obama succeeds in raising the maximum federal income tax rate up to the 50 percent range (by letting the Bush tax cuts expire and increasing "surtaxes" to fund his health care and energy schemes), and if the high-tax states continue to raise their rates so the total burden on upper-income people reaches 60 percent or more, Puerto Rican residency is going to become increasingly attractive.
At the moment, most who flee the high-tax states go to states without an income tax like Texas, Florida, and so on, but they still have to pay the federal income tax. Thus if Mr. Fortuno is able to reduce the maximum marginal tax rates in Puerto Rico to the mid-20s, many job-creating entrepreneurs are likely to make a beeline toward what will increasingly be an island paradise, where tax rates will be half of what they are on the mainland.
Richard W. Rahn is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth.
By Richard Rahn
Have you noticed that many politicians who have trouble dealing with reality also seem to prefer fantasyland when dealing with budgets?
Those on the left never stop claiming that problems will be solved if only tax rates are increased. Why then does California, with its 10.6 percent state income tax rate, have a huge budget deficit and a 12.2 percent unemployment rate, while Texas, which does not have a state income tax, enjoys a budget surplus and a below average unemployment rate of 8.2 percent?
Why then does nearly bankrupt Rhode Island with the eighth-highest overall state tax burden in the United States, including a 7.75 percent income tax rate, have a 13 percent unemployment rate, while South Dakota with the fourth-lowest state tax burden and no state income tax, have virtually full employment with only 4.8 percent unemployment?
New York politicians have been living in political fantasyland for many years. Upper-income people living in New York City have faced the highest state and local income tax rates in the country (over 12 percent). Recent studies show high-income earners are in mass flight from New York to friendlier tax environments. The rational thing for New York politicians to do would be to cut tax rates to make New York more competitive; but no, they increased taxes on the top earners (many of whom continue to pack their bags).
It is not only politicians who live in fantasyland, but others as well, such as some labor leaders. The new (in office since January) Republican governor of Puerto Rico, Luis G. Fortuno, inherited a budget deficit of $3.2 billion, which is larger than any state budget in the United States on a per capita basis.
For many years, Puerto Rico has suffered from bloated government with five times as many government workers per capita than California. Seventy percent of the budget goes for government salaries and benefits.
Mr. Fortuno has had little choice but to take drastic action to keep the government from going bankrupt and losing its credit rating. He has already laid off 4,000 government employees, and he plans to lay off another 17,000 this week.
As would be expected, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who brought on a good part of the crisis through its excessive employment and wage demands, is now trying to prevent the governor from doing what is needed.
The SEIU has yet to learn that a parasite that kills its host soon finds it has no place to live (work) - just ask the auto union. Unlike the governor, the SEIU and the others continue to live in fantasyland, ignoring the fact that the cookie jar is empty.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has a long history of confusing facts with fiction, this past week added to the administration's claim that "nearly 650,000" jobs have been created or saved by the stimulus package. He said the recovery plan "is operating as advertised" and is on target to reach the president's goal.
In reply, the highly respected economist, Alan Meltzer, who has a long history of being able to distinguish between facts and fiction, said: "The administration can make up any number it pleases. The number has no meaning. The Council of Economic Advisers gets a number for jobs saved using the same model that Dr. Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein used when they forecast that the $787 billion stimulus program would keep the worst unemployment rate in this recession at about 8 percent. But as we all know, since that bill became law, our economy has shed some 3 million jobs and the unemployment rate is nearing double digits."
Ironically, the Obama administration and the politicians who run New York, California, etc., may ultimately help Mr. Fortuno by driving many of their highest-earning and most productive citizens to Puerto Rico.
Mr. Fortuno has made it clear that he believes the key to solving Puerto Rico's economic problems is to reduce the size of the government and take its foot off the windpipe of the private sector. He told me at a breakfast meeting last week that he wants to reform the tax system and reduce rates for everyone.
Any American citizen (which includes all native-born Puerto Ricans) who resides in Puerto Rico pays income taxes to the Puerto Rican, not to the U.S., government. The maximum income tax rate in Puerto Rico is now 33 percent, just a couple of points lower than the U.S. federal rate.
But if Mr. Obama succeeds in raising the maximum federal income tax rate up to the 50 percent range (by letting the Bush tax cuts expire and increasing "surtaxes" to fund his health care and energy schemes), and if the high-tax states continue to raise their rates so the total burden on upper-income people reaches 60 percent or more, Puerto Rican residency is going to become increasingly attractive.
At the moment, most who flee the high-tax states go to states without an income tax like Texas, Florida, and so on, but they still have to pay the federal income tax. Thus if Mr. Fortuno is able to reduce the maximum marginal tax rates in Puerto Rico to the mid-20s, many job-creating entrepreneurs are likely to make a beeline toward what will increasingly be an island paradise, where tax rates will be half of what they are on the mainland.
Richard W. Rahn is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth.
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