PR guv submits bill to slash legislature's size

Puerto Rico's governor submitted a bill Monday that would slash 30 percent of the seats in the U.S. territory's legislature, which offers its lawmakers among the highest salaries of any state assembly under the American flag.

The proposal to prune the bicameral legislature comes as Puerto Rico grapples with its most painful financial crisis in decades and Republican Gov. Luis Fortuno has ordered mass layoffs of public employees to close a crushing $3.2 billion deficit. If approved, the bill would also require a constitutional referendum.

Fortuno's administration claims the reform to the chronically fractious bodies could trim some $11 million from annual operating costs while improving government efficiency.

Puerto Rican Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock, who is leading a committee responsible for reducing the size of the legislature, said the proposal would cut the House from 51 seats to 39 and the Senate from 27 seats to 17.

"It's a lot bigger than it needs to be," McClintock said of the legislature. "Every seat represents at least half a million in expenditures."

Puerto Rico's full-time legislators receive a salary of $73,000 while also getting generous per diem payments intended to offset expenses. McClintock, a former Senate president, said those payments can run $25,000 to $30,000 a year.

Only full-time lawmakers in the U.S. states of California, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania have higher base salaries than Puerto Rico's legislators get, according to a 2010 compensation chart provided by the National Conference of State Legislators.

The proposal pits Fortuno's pro-statehood party against opposition lawmakers who favor keeping Puerto Rico's commonwealth status - two camps that rarely agree.

The head of the main opposition Democratic Popular Party, Hector Ferrer, has said the bill would disenfranchise pro-commonwealth supporters by dissolving districts in areas that are historically supportive of his party.

The measure might come up for a vote by June, and McClintock said he believes it has an excellent chance of passing the legislature, which is dominated by his party.

But already a handful of House representatives belonging to Fortuno's governing party are telling a local newspaper that they are not enthusiastic about the bill.

A Caribbean island of roughly 4 million people, Puerto Rico is in its fourth year in recession. Bankruptcies have increased by 30 percent and more than 10,000 people are on a waiting list for public housing.