In a story published in the May 8 edition of Guadalajara daily El Informador, Chapala was one of 12 Jalisco municipalities singled out for spending more resources on servicing public debt than on funding public works.
According to the article, the municipal government’s budget for 2015 totals 330,958,106 pesos, with just 54,239,988 earmarked for public works and a whopping 112, 044,646 allotted to the debt burden. It quotes Mayor Joaquin Huerta as stating that his administration has assumed responsibility for allocating resources to cover red ink incurred by previous administrations.
Moises Anaya, Citizen’s Movement (MC) candidate for mayor, honed in on the same point during a recent press conference, presenting a chart showing the city’s debt growth from the ten million pesos deficit accumulated during the 2001-2003 term of Alejandro Aguirre to the 138.5 million liability inherited from Jesus Cabrera’s 2010-2012 government. The largest spike, calculated at a 666-percent rise, is attributed to the 2007-2009 administration of Gerardo Degollado.
According to Anaya’s figures, the Cabrera administration paid out 27,925,362 pesos on debt interest and capital, while investing about 119.3 million in public works projects.
During the Cabrera regime, Anaya served as city hall’s sindico (legal representative) and a three-month stint in 2011 as interim mayor. Dale Hoyt Palfrey