Gov. Pedro Pierluisi
By THE STAR STAFF
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said Thursday that he has not decided yet on whether to convene a special session after governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón said she opposed the idea.
The governor noted however that there are defective laws that need to be fixed and issues, such as the passage of global minimum tax legislation, that need to be addressed now.
“Well, what I had said, and I repeat, is that it is possible to call an extraordinary session, but I have not made that decision,” Pierluisi said. “I have had preliminary conversations with the legislative leadership, and before making that decision, I will discuss the matter with the governor-elect.”
“There are pending matters that are important; there are appointments, for example, that were pending in the extraordinary session and deserve to be considered by the Senate,” the governor noted. “Some appointments expire in the near future that would also be good for the Senate to consider.”
He also said there were laws that were passed by both houses that contain errors that should be fixed.
“And we have contacted the co-authors of those bills and they have presented measures to correct those errors and it is important that they are passed because we do not want to leave defective legislation on the books,” Pierluisi said.
The governor also said it is urgent for Puerto Rico to act on the global minimum tax, which he said “is of great concern to foreign companies, particularly European ones, that are doing business in the manufacturing sector and are concerned that this global minimum tax applies to them as of January 1, so that sector would like to see that issue addressed.”
The commercial sector in general has asked for a long time that the inventory tax issue be addressed.
“Obviously this decision has not been made,” Pierlusi added. “As I said before, I do not want to cause unnecessary controversy, so if an extraordinary meeting occurs, it will be because there is a pre-agreement with the legislative leadership, and certainly I have already discussed the matter with the governor-elect and she has no major objection to it.”
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