Puerto Rico House Rejects Tax-Overhaul, Pushing Bonds Lower
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Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives rejected a tax-overhaul bill that would have paved the way for a $2.9 billion debt sale needed to avert a cash crunch, pushing prices on the commonwealth’s newest bonds to a record low.
The chamber voted against the measure 28 to 22 early Thursday morning, Ileana Baez Bravo, a spokeswoman for Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, said in an e-mail. The bill, which failed to gain unanimous support from legislators of the governor’s Popular Democratic Party, would have introduced a 13 percent levy on goods and services along with a 1 percent sales tax.