Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval has announced austerity measures designed to help lessen the effects of the steep increase in the price of gasoline, enacted January 1.
Despite the 14-20-percent hike in fuel costs, Sandoval will not bow to pressure from city bus drivers/owners and authorize an increase in public transportation fares, despite the threats of strikes.
But neither will the state government resort to subsidizing Guadalajara’s public transportation network, as this would “only benefit a few,” Sandoval said. He intends to revamp the city bus system into a more efficient model and offer incentives for owners of buses who convert their units from diesel to natural gas, thus saving around 35 percent in fuel costs. This new “ruta-empresa” model will involve the dissolution of Sistecozome, the parastatal that operates 90 of the city’s bus routes, he said.
In a show of defiance, Sandoval pledged to remove from circulation all buses whose owners/drivers participate in strikes.
The state government is also seeking to reduce its budget for gasoline by 50 percent for the remainder of the current administration, and lessen its dependency on eight-cylinder vehicles and higher. Ten percent of the government’s vehicle fleet will be converted to natural gas or hybrids, he said.
The introduction of the revised vehicle emissions program (Verification Vehicular) will be postponed for a year, but will continue in its present form for the next 12 months. Dozens of small garages have balked at the prohibitive cost of purchasing new equipment to carry out the annual checks, estimated at around eight million pesos.
The state government also plans to join forces with the private sector to construct infrastructure to stockpile gasoline in the state and maintain price stability. Under the new pricing model, gasoline in Guadalajara and its surrounding area has become the most expensive in Mexico. The northeastern region of Jalisco known as Los Altos is the most likely site for the new gasoline storage and distribution facility.
The austerity measures will also affect the state government’s promotion and public relations budgets, which will be slashed by 30 percent. In addition, the salaries of all high-ranking government officials will be frozen.
With these savings, a new contingency fund – the Fondo para la Contingencia de la Economía Familiar 2017 – will be set up to benefit the state’s least well off citizens. The fund will kick off with an initial injection of one billion pesos to subsidize an additional 30,000 bienevales – free bus/metro passes for the elderly and disabled. Money from the fund will also be used to purchase 60 additional school buses in Jalisco municipalities, and 8,000 solar heating devices for homes located in zones of great economic need.
The state government has promised to present an initiative in Congress to reduce the financing of political parties in years without elections. The savings would be directed to the contingency fund. A similar inactive is already under discussion in the state legislature.