In addition, it calls for newly hired public workers to be enrolled in Social Security,<br />and for current public workers younger than 40 to enroll “to the extent practicable.”<br />The board was established by an act of Congress last year to guide Puerto Rico through a restructuring of its more than $70 billion of debt.<br />Puerto Rico, Mired in Debt, Has a New Rescue Plan -<br />By MARY WILLIAMS WALSHMARCH 13, 2017<br />Puerto Rico, reeling from a debt crisis lasting more than a year, reached an agreement Monday<br />that should set the stage for meaningful talks with its creditors, who hold more than $70 billion of defaulted debt.<br />But the governor remained unwilling to bend in three contentious areas: how much to cut pensions for retired government workers; whether to constrain the current public work force to two-<br />and four-day workweeks to save money; and whether to stop paying all public workers a Christmas bonus, in light of the fact that bondholders are not being paid.<br />To get the board’s provisional approval, Mr. Rosselló said he had to find ways to come up with $160 million more<br />in government revenue than he had in a previous version of the plan, which was rejected by the board Thursday.<br />In the board’s meeting in New York on Monday, it amended the governor’s plan so work could begin immediately on converting the existing<br />pension system to a pay-as-you-go system, in which the retirees’ benefits will be paid directly out of the government’s general fund.
