San Juan, Puerto Rico — The gridlocked members of the congressional supercommittee should grab President Obama and decamp to a tropical island. Specifically, they should visit Puerto Rico, where a courageous leader is using free-market reforms to reinvigorate this previously moribund U.S. territory.
“We are clearly pro-growth,” says Republican governor Luis G. Fortuño. “And we do not apologize for that.”
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Fortuño last Tuesday hosted a delegation of conservative luminaries who steamed into San Juan aboard the Holland America Line’s MS Eurodam, site of National Review’s latest Caribbean cruise.
Fortuño was inaugurated on Jan. 2, 2009, just 18 days before Obama. Since then, these two officials have marched in opposite directions, with opposite results.
“We were closer to the abyss than most states,” Fortuño says. “When I came into office, we were facing not just the worst recession since the ’30s, but the worst budget deficit in America, proportionally. We were literally broke. Actually, I had to fly up to New York to avoid a serious downgrade in our bonds. I came to realize actually that we did not have enough money to meet our first payroll. We had to take out a loan to do that. At that point, my wife asked me if we could ask for a recount.”
So, what did Fortuño do?
Unlike the free-spending Obama, and G. W. Bush before him, Fortuño declares: “We cut expenses.”
Fortuño set an example by giving himself a 10 percent pay cut. He trimmed his agency heads’ salaries by 5 percent. That bought him the credibility to chop overall spending by 20 percent. He booted some 20,000 government workers, through attrition as well as layoffs, saving $935 million. (Compare that to Bush/Obama’s 11.7 percent hike in the federal civilian headcount since the Great Recession began in December 2007 — excluding temporary Census jobs.) Fortuño has shifted remaining government workers from old-fashioned, statist defined-benefit pensions to modern, market-friendly defined-contribution plans.
Ranked No. 51 in 2009 — behind every state of the Union — in proportion of deficit to revenue, Puerto Rico now is 15th, with the $3.3 billion deficit Fortuño inherited (44 percent of revenues) now machete’d to $610 million (7.1 percent). Fortuño’s reforms, including merging government agencies, led Standard & Poor’s to upgrade Puerto Rico’s credit rating for the first time in 28 years. S&P, of course, famously downgraded U.S. sovereign debt last August, an historical first. Meanwhile, America’s national debt screamed past the $15 trillion mark on Wednesday.
Fortuño has sliced taxes. The corporate tax rate plunged last January from 41 percent to 30, en route to 25 percent in 2014. He cut average individual tax rates by one quarter this year, and plans to cut them in half within six years.
“You needed to obtain an average of 28 permits and endorsements to do anything,” Fortuño says, regarding regulatory relief. “You had to go to 20-plus different agencies to do that. Today, you go to one agency, and you get your permit there, or you can go to PR.gov, and get it online.”
As Fox Business Network’s John Stossel reported last June, some 250 Puerto Rican police officers previously scrutinized liquor-license applications. Fortuño now has a couple of civil servants handle those duties, with the process conducted largely online. Those cops now patrol the streets and pursue actual criminals.
“We have created a better business climate, and it shows,” Fortuño summarizes.
"Citizens born in Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are legally defined as "natural born" citizens and are, therefore, also eligible to be elected President, provided they meet qualifications of age and 14 years residence within the United States. Residence in Puerto Rico and U.S. territories and possessions does not qualify as residence within the United States for these purposes."
Just checked CIA worldbook and for 2010 GDP growth in PR was -5.8% versus 2.8% in US.
Checked US labor department employment statistics and for PR year over year growth (sept 2011) in employment (non farm) was 0.3% or 2700 jobs, growth in gov't jobs was 2.7% or 7200 jobs, i.e non gov't jobs fell by 4500. In US total job growth is higher, despite fact gov't jobs are in fact falling and offsetting decent job growth in private sector.
If only we had implemented those policies adopted in PR.
skeptic, do you think the following fact had much impact on PR's economy in 2010?
"The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season was the third most active Atlantic hurricane season on record, tying with the 1887 Atlantic hurricane season and the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season."
Not knowing the details of the PR economy I would venture a guess that when the US economy catches a cold, tourism in the Caribbean, gets pneumonia. Something like this:
"First quarter 2011 hotel occupancy rates show a four percent increase over 2010, and Puerto Rico tourism officials anticipate a three to four percent rise in total tourism visits this year, the Island’s first increase in five year."
Maybe cutting the vast waste in PR government directly resulted in the 2010 economic decline. But it hardly managed to be the end of the world that so many claim will happen if government spending (anywhere) occurs too, no?
There's plenty to cut and still improve an economy. Only the will and motivation to cut is lacking. You certainly don't advocate waste as an "economic" solution, do you?
While I don't disagree with this articles direction of positive results, I do have to point out, that Fortuño is not the most inspirational governor the island has ever had, and as such has been highly criticized even by his own group. The unemployment rate is still pretty high at over 15% when it started at 9.5% in 2008. Just something to keep in mind.
