SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—The administration of Puerto Rico’s new governor warned on Tuesday that the government of the U.S. territory could shut down if dramatic measures to offset its financial crisis aren’t taken soon.
The warning came as officials released new data provided by the previous governor during the transition process that they say shows the government’s revenue problems after the island’s decade-long economic slump are even worse than previously believed.
“If we don’t make a dramatic adjustment, there could be a total collapse in upcoming months,” said Elias Sanchez, the governor’s representative to a federal control board created last year to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances.
He told reporters that the extent of the fiscal crisis is still unknown, in part because of a lack of communication among public agencies. Puerto Rico is seeking to restructure a public debt load of nearly $70 billion, and the island has defaulted on millions of dollars’ worth of bond payments since August, angering creditors who have filed multiple lawsuits.
The report released Tuesday reported deficits of $230 million for the island’s Education Department and $45 million for the police department and said the Highway Authority owes suppliers more than $500 million.
The report also said Puerto Rico’s largest public university has $91 million deposited in the Government Development Bank that it cannot access because of a debt moratorium. Officials say the bank, which oversees the island’s debt transactions, turned over its routing number in April and has not issued any checks since. All of the bank’s deposits have been moved to private banks.
