The Governing Board of the Municipal Revenue CollectionCenter (CRIM, Spanish acronym) decided yesterday to create a committee to seek options to address the municipalities' lack of funds for the next fiscal year beginning in July.
"This is to begin discussing alternatives and efforts to see what we are going to do in the next fiscal years," said CRIM Governing Board President Javier Carrasquillo.
He stressed they still have not selected the mayors who will be part of the committee. Carrasquillo said that there will be a representative of the Mayors Association and another of the Mayors Federation, and mayors representing small, medium, and large municipalities.
Besides, during yesterday's meeting, they also agreed to send a letter to the Oversight Board asking the entity to clarify whether they will have available a line of credit that they offered for the payment of the May, June, and July remittances. CRIM also wants to know when this money would be available.
Carrasquillo said the line of credit offered by the Board totaled $100 million, but the CRIM's governing body needs $200 million to cover the remittances.
Insufficiency to pay remittances remains on the table after the Board determined that $132 million CRIM had – coming from transfers the state makes to municipalities - will be used to cover the $198 million debt as a result of the repeal of Law 29. That law exempted municipalities from contributing to the health plan and pensions of their employees and Federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain declared it null and void.
CRIM wanted to use the $132 million to pay remittances.
Yesterday, San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, proposed the CRIM's Governing Board to file a motion in Federal Court, arguing that this debt should be covered by the central government and not by CRIM. But the proposal was not supported Carrasquillo said.
