Puerto Rico announces referendum to protect public pensions
Puerto Rico’s governor announced Monday that she plans to hold a referendum on whether public pension payments should be protected by the U.S. territory’s Constitution for the first time in the island’s history.
If approved, the measure would prohibit using money from Puerto Rico’s crumbling public pension system to repay creditors — challenging efforts by the federal control board overseeing the island’s finances to make pensioners share the pain with investors in a restructuring of part of the island’s more than $70 billion in public debt.
Currently, the public pension system faces more than $50 billion in unfunded liabilities and the territory’s government has been resisting efforts by the board to impose pension cuts and other austerity measures.
“This is a social justice measure,” said Vázquez, who is running for governor in November — when the referendum would be held — and faces an Aug. 9 primary.
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