Puerto Rico has had 10 elected governors, counting our present Governor, Alejandro García Padilla. Most of them lost their credibility while in office, but none so quickly as García Padilla. In less than his first six months in office, the vast majority of the people don’t believe what the governor says, particularly his claims of achievement and fulfilling his promises. As a matter of fact, the overwhelming majority of the people don’t believe anything he claims nowadays.

It all started during the campaign. To convince people to vote for him, García Padilla made promises, which he either knew he couldn’t fulfill, or else made promises without knowing whether he could deliver. Whatever the reason, he must have known that he wasn’t being honest. As a result of his misrepresentation, he managed to win the 2012 elections. However, once elected, instead of accepting that he couldn’t fulfill his promises, he kept repeating them. Worst of all, he keeps denying the obvious truth and has managed to completely destroy his credibility. He has led the people to surmise that he lacks knowledge of public financing and the intelligence that a governor must have to govern and steer the people in the right direction and overcome the recession.

One of the most repeated assertions made by the Governor, members of his cabinet and agency directors is that they haven’t increased taxes on the middle class, workers and poor. Today, after having imposed sales taxes (known as IVU in Spanish) on goods, which weren’t previously taxed, such as aspirin, vitamins and other nonprescription medicines and goods, they still claim they haven’t increased or imposed any new taxes on the middle class, white-collar employees and blue-collar workers. However, it is precisely the middle class, white- and blue-collar workers and poor families who are most heavily affected by the new sales taxes.

The most recently imposed tax of 4¢ per liter, or 16¢ per gallon, on gasoline, increases the price of most goods and services. Everyone in Puerto Rico knows that any increase in fuel for autos, buses, trucks and other heavy equipment causes an increase in the cost of living. Who is most affected by the increase? The wealthiest can easily afford the increase in cost of living, but the ones who suffer most are precisely the struggling middle class, white- and blue-collar workers and poor families. Yet, the Governor, members of his cabinet and agency directors keep saying the 4¢ per liter gasoline tax doesn’t affect them. In particular, the Governor keeps saying that all the new taxes affect only the upper-middle and wealthiest classes, and that none of the additional taxes that he has imposed on us affect middle-income or lower-income citizens.

How can the Governor pretend to believe that all his additional taxes are payable only by the wealthiest individuals and companies in Puerto Rico? He has not only lost credibility, but is also, by insisting on his false assertions, encouraging that he be considered a consummate liar. How can the people trust a government whose leader can’t tell them the truth?

When a leader insists on lying to the people, the people lose faith—not only because they are being lied to, but also in cases like this, the offense is greater because they understand that their Governor must think they are stupid or ignorant.

In the issue of taxation, the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) and governors have had a very bad record of imposing grossly unfair taxes, beginning with Gov. Luis Muñoz Marín. During the latter part of the 1950s, Muñoz Marín decided to impose incredibly high excise taxes on automobiles. Some succeeding administrations have lowered them a little, but never enough. The excise taxes on automobiles are by far the highest sales taxes on vehicles in the nation. The cost of a car in Puerto Rico is very unjustifiably high in comparison with the cost in the States, and it represents a heavy financial burden on the middle-and lower-income groups on the island.

After Muñoz Marín, came Govs. Roberto Sánchez Vilella and Luis Ferré. I don’t recall either of them raising or imposing new taxes, other than toll taxes on new expressways collected for the first time during Ferré’s tenure. Then came Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón, who imposed so many additional and grossly unfair taxes that the public nicknamed him, «The Tax Vampire,» who was sucking our last drops of blood with very burdensome taxes, particularly burdensome on the middle- and lower-income groups.

Hernández Colón imposed statewide property taxes for the first time in our history. Before him, only Puerto Rico’s municipalities collected real-property taxes. He doubled real-property taxes by imposing a new state tax equal to the existing municipal real-estate tax. At the time, the populares claimed that the additional real-estate property tax wasn’t a burden on the lower-income group, because if they owned their home, the low assessed value of their property gave them total exemption. However, they conveniently overlooked that many, if not most, of lower-income families didn’t own a home, but rented one. Obviously, if the property tax on a rented home was increased, so would the rent. He not only imposed the first real-property tax at the state level, but also imposed a 6.6% excise tax on most goods imported or manufactured locally. As you can clearly see, the heaviest and most burdensome taxes on the middle- and lower-income groups in Puerto Rico have been imposed by PDP governors.

I was the first governor in Puerto Rico’s history to reduce income taxes on the middle- and lower-income groups on the island. To be able to reduce income taxes, we imposed income taxes on the, up to then, 100% tax-exempt corporations, known as the [Section] 936 companies. The prediction and threats of massive unemployment never materialized. As a matter of fact, the electronic industry experienced its greatest growth during my eight years in office. On the other hand, the PDP has always received substantial sums of money from exempt companies’ executives, directors, and other people and professional groups with vested interests in tax-exempt companies. As a result, they protect the multibillion-dollar companies and put the tax burden on the shoulders of the middle- and lower-income groups.

Hernández Colón, like García Padilla, also tried to pull the wool over taxpayers’ eyes. He imposed an additional tax on oil and called it the «reducing tax.» He tried to make people believe that he was reducing taxes on oil, not imposing a new one.

The lying and the misleading campaigns by the present Governor are not only limited to taxes, but they also include his unsubstantiated campaign promise that he will create 50,000 additional jobs. Incredibly, he still keeps holding press conferences bragging about the jobs created by every new business that is inaugurated, but he purposely omits to tell of the jobs that have been lost since Dec. 31, 2012, from businesses closing and bankruptcies. Instead of having more jobs today, we have fewer jobs than in December 2012. The reduction in the unemployment percentage isn’t the result of the creation of new jobs, but of the reduction in labor-force participation.

A column on the misinformation campaign on jobs allegedly created will be forthcoming. For the moment, Puerto Rico should be aware that the official numbers in the federal and local labor departments show that we have fewer people employed today than we did last year.

Well, what has become obvious is that we can’t believe the promises, commitments or campaigns carried out by García Padilla and his administration. Without credibility, he lacks the most important quality that he and his administration need to lead us out of this recession: credibility!

Carlos Romero Barceló is a two-term former governor of Puerto Rico (1977-84), a two-term former resident commissioner (1993-2000) and a two-term former mayor of San Juan (1969-78). He was president of the New Progressive Party for 11 years. He is now a consultant involved in real estate, doing business as CRB Realty. His email address is rbarcelo@prtc.net. Comments on this article are welcome at caribbeanbusiness.pr. Go to the «Sign in» link on the homepage to participate. Emails also may be sent to column@caribbeanbusiness.pr.