Puerto Rico Board Chairman José Carri-n III said Governor-Elect Ricardo Rossell- will have the final say on the fiscal plan that is supposed to guide government finances and debt payments over at least the next five years.
"We are providing suggestions; we are providing options," Carri-n said. "At the end of the day it will be the people of Puerto Rico who will decide what measures to implement.
"The fiscal plan will be the governor's," the chairman said at a press conference Tuesday.
The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act set up the board and directed it to create a five year fiscal plan that would, among other things, provide a balanced budget to the commonwealth, regain access to the capital markets, fund essential public services, fund pensions, and achieve a sustainable debt burden.
According to PROMESA, if the governor cannot come up with a plan that satisfies the board, the board can create the plan and it would be legally considered "approved by the governor" whether or not the governor supported it.
Carri-n said the board had asked its counsel to commence a "listening tour" of the creditors to learn their positions about how the debt should be restructured. He said the board was very serious about trying to use Title VI of the PROMESA law to try and reach a consensual form of restructuring.
Before restructuring talks can start, the board is hiring a third party to validate the governor's estimate of the fiscal shortfall.
In response to a different question, Board member Ana Matosantos said the board hadn't decided on what the breakdown should be between structural reform, fiscal reform, and debt restructuring.
Matosantos said the board was aware of reports the government may run out of money in February and was preparing steps to avoid this development.
Board member José Ram-n González said that the board wasn't assuming there will be federal aid for Puerto Rico, because it wasn't included in the PROMESA law and because in the current political climate it seemed unlikely.
