By The Star Staff
The spokesman for the New Progressive Party minority in the House of Representatives, Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Nuñez, announced Monday that the priorities of that delegation in the last regular session of the current four-year term will be the approval of a tax reform that reduces the burden on the working class and small and midsize enterprises (SMEs), avoiding increases in the electricity bill, improving the hospital structure, proposing legislation to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and eliminating layers of bureaucracy in the disbursement of federal funds for reconstruction, among others.
“For this delegation, the priority is to approve and have the Governor sign a tax reform,” Méndez Nuñez said. “When I say that it is the main issue, it is because we are going to work incessantly to lower the tax burden on our working class, so that they, along with SMEs, benefit from the use of the federal funds obtained and that are being used to move the economy and generate new income for the government. We have to impact, with real and verified discounts, the middle class and we are going to do that starting next Monday, without stopping.”
“We are going to give households with income, whether individual or combined, between $41,500 and $61,500, a reduction in their rate to 24 percent, while those with income between $61,500 and $81,500 would also fall into the new 24 percent rate,” the veteran lawmaker said. “Denying the people this reduction is not the right thing to do. In the last four years we eliminated the ‘B2B’ (a 2015 tax on transactions between merchants and merchants, as well as professional services), we eliminated the national patente [contribution], we approved the elimination of the inventory tax, and we restored the senior bonus as well as to do justice to our older adults. We do not increase any contribution; on the contrary. This reform is necessary.”
“We are going to work on issues such as health, legislating to mitigate the exodus of health professionals, not only doctors, but nurses, pharmacists and other technical personnel,” Méndez Nuñez continued. “Meanwhile, the issue of access to housing is a priority for us. We hope to finally get the PDP [majority Popular Democratic Party] legislative leaders to send to the governor’s desk this coming week House Bill 1470 (A92), which has been on file since November 14, when the Senate approved the amendments. This measure facilitates the construction of new homes, which are so necessary at this time.”