Fiscal board greenlights the distribution of $40 million to cash-strapped towns
By The Star Staff
The Financial Oversight and Management Board has authorized the distribution of some $40 million, which will be divided into two parts, to provide one-time economic support to municipalities for rising costs and economic uncertainty due to inflationary pressures.
Specifically, the fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget requests that the Municipal Revenue Collections Center (CRIM by its Spanish acronym) develop and propose an equitable distribution methodology to deploy one-time economic support to municipalities to offset the impacts of inflation and other macroeconomic factors contributing to rising costs.
The FY 2023 budget states that the $40 million is “held under Contributions to the Municipalities until CRIM submits a proposal of the selected methodology approved by the CRIM Governing Board on or before July 31, 2022 and the proposal is subsequently reviewed and approved by the Oversight Board.”
On June 20, 2022, via email communication, CRIM provided the oversight board with a schedule of the proposed equitable distribution approved by the CRIM Governing Board.
CRIM’s proposed distribution methodology is based on two equally weighted formulas that distribute the one-time economic support as follows: $20 million based on the inverse proportion of each municipality’s budget per capita based on FY 2021, and $20 million based on the inverse proportion of each municipality’s assessed property value per capita.
“The Oversight Board has reviewed the proposed distribution methodology and approves the
recommendation,” the board said in a letter to CRIM Executive Director Reynaldo Paniagua.
According to a document, the municipalities of Barranquitas and Comerío received the most funding, with $1 million each. Cataño received the least amount of funding at $123,000.