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Luis Fortuño: Puerto Rico’s Scott Walker
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Jason |
| Last Edited | Jason Jul 23, 2012 05:28am |
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| Category | Profile |
| News Date | Monday, June 25, 2012 11:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Madison, Wis., may be the austerity debate’s central front, but San Juan is an important, if overlooked, battleground. For the past three years, Governor Luis Fortuño has been the Caribbean’s Scott Walker — and like Walker, he’s under siege.
When Fortuño began his term, Puerto Rico was an economic mess. Fifteen percent of the island territory’s labor force was unemployed. Facing a $3.2 billion budget deficit, Fortuño implemented deep cuts, slashing public jobs and salaries across the board.
The government unions erupted. Thousands of public workers protested Fortuño’s reforms on the streets of San Juan. And in five months, when Puerto Ricans head to the polls, the labor activists and their allies, the Popular Democrats, want him gone.
Fortuño welcomes the fight. Progress has been slow, he tells me over breakfast in Washington, but it has been steady. According to the Labor Department, Puerto Rico’s jobless rate is 14 percent, down from a high of 17 percent two years ago. |
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