Opinion: How Cuomo could help Puerto Rico back home

Given the roots of the financial crisis in Puerto Rico, it was surprising that two words were never mentioned during New York’s “Puerto Rico Solidarity Mission” held on the island this week: Wall Street. 

A New York “dream team” of state officials and members of Congress led by Gov. Andrew Cuomo made an overnight visit Puerto Rico this week and announced initiatives to help the island achieve equal treatment in federal health programs, improve energy efficiency and promote tourism, commerce and agriculture.

During a public event at the University of Puerto Rico’s Medical Sciences Campus, the visiting officials as well as Puerto Rican Gov. Alejandro García Padilla and his staff repeatedly pointed the finger at Washington, D.C., for ignoring the disparity in federal Medicare spending.

But aside from Cuomo’s first public comments supporting the possibility of allowing Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy, no one pointed a finger at Wall Street, where García Padilla hopes to renegotiate with creditors the $72 billion public debt that is crushing the island territory.

The New York delegation promised to bring attention to the Medicare disparity issue - which is very important and the support is greatly appreciated - but perhaps at this historical junction the Cuomo administration needs to “make some noise” closer to home.

Just three hours after the New York mission left, García Padilla was officially handed a five-year Fiscal Adjustment Plan that relies on the premise that creditors will be willing to negotiate with Puerto Rico.

“If creditors are not willing to take part in this process, Puerto Rico will have no choice but to go ahead without them,” Puerto Rico’s governor said during a televised message Wednesday morning, adding that his preference was to get the creditors on board.

If creditors are not willing to negotiate, he continued, it “will result in years of litigation and defaults, and a major humanitarian crisis. It will force us to choose between paying a creditor, a teacher, a policeman or a nurse. These are decisions I’d prefer not to make, but I will make them if I have to.”

Considering Cuomo’s relationship with some of the major creditors, which according to reports have contributed $1.28 million to his political campaign committee, a more timely display of solidarity could be to reach out to them on behalf of Puerto Rico to bring them to the negotiating table.

But such a possibility was not mentioned during the visit, and Cuomo told the press that García Padilla had not given him any insight on the fiscal adjustment plan.

“We’re going to organize, we’re going to mobilize, we’re going to do it here in Puerto Rico, we’re going to do it in New York,” said Cuomo referring to a “March for the Health of Puerto Rico” planned for Nov. 7 on the island.

The question for Cuomo is, will a similar march be held down Wall Street any time soon for the health of Puerto Rico’s economy?