The Dominican government has announced a 20% increase in spending on education and public health, according to Temistocles Montas, the Presidential Minister for Technical Affairs. Diario Libre reports that Montas said the President would send the budget proposal to Congress as soon as the tax "correction" has been passed by both houses. The minister said that the legislature and the government's economic team would be working on these issues into the beginning of next week. Reporters welcomed the news that RD$50 billion was allocated to these two important social sectors.
The Dominican government will save 24.2% of the resources that it had planned to spend on subsidies for the electricity sector in 2006. Of the US$700 million programmed for 2006, the government will only pay out US$530 million. Listin Diario cited two contributory factors to this unexpected largesse: the first one was the increased efficiency in electricity bill payment collection rates. The second was the fact that the government did not lower electricity rates by 2.4% and 3.7% as promised.
Law 28-01 is safe for now, according to Senate leader Reinaldo Pared Perez. The law was designed to attract investments to the seven frontier provinces, the most economically depressed area of the Dominican Republic. Public outcry, headed by bishop emeritus Tomas Abreu of Mao, halted efforts to rescind the privileges extended to investors in the area as part of the new tax proposals.
Economist Fernando Alvarez Bogaert reported that the Dominican Republic's tax policies are regressive and the proposed tax correction will exacerbate rather than solve the problem. He explained that a study carried out by Ivan Rodriguez showed that more than 75% of the government's income came from indirect taxes, and the scheme is followed in the new tax proposals. Alvarez Bogaert explained that such tax income is a regressive since it affects the poor to a larger degree than the rich. Direct taxes have the opposite effect, in that the wealthy pay a higher proportion of the taxes. According to the economist, no more than 50% of the government's income should come from indirect taxes.
The Leon Group, one of the Dominican Republic's major industrial and financial entities, has warned that the new tax reform would reduce the government's income from tax collections on products such as cigarettes, beer and rum. They point out that taxes on beer alone will have increased by 364% in under four years. If the current proposal is approved as it now stands, beer drinkers will face a 40% price increase, and taxes collected from beer sales will fall by 30%, according to the group's president, Jose Leon Asencio.
Oops! It seems that after removing 27,500 tons of fly ash, misnamed as "rock ash" in the newspapers, there is still some 10,000 tons of the stuff in Samana. The fly ash in Manzanillo is still there, intact. The environmental authorities have still not been able to transfer all the controversial deposits for safe disposal. "We thought that there were 27,000 tons, but there is evidently some ten thousand tons left," said Environmental Minister Max Puig. The government had contracted Sotramotier to transfer 27,500 tons of the ash to the Cemex factory in San Pedro de Macoris where it would be used in cement production. The contract was for US$1.0 million. One observer, a chemist from the UASD, said that the original piles of fly ash were much larger even than the 37,500 now calculated, since, according to his estimates, at least one third of the fly ash was swept into Samana Bay by the last hurricane to hit that area. The Dominican Republic government is suing AES in a court in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
While the government has promised that it would not increase the generators' accounts receivables, the current debt is now at the US$100 million level (RD$3.3 billion). During the past two months the government has maintained the electricity rates at October's levels, but they were "supposed" to go down. Therefore, consumers were paying for the government's subsidy program to the tune of about RD$250 million.
The National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INDRHI) is cleaning up the Valdez Dam, one of the main sources of drinking water for Santo Domingo and its environs. The INDRHI is cleaning the runoff channels as well as removing the accumulated sediment at the bottom of the lake. According to Frank Rodriguez, who is quoted in Diario Libre, during the 27 years of its existence, the dam has lost 26% of its reservoir capacity due to sedimentation.
Listin Diario and the Hamilton Group have put their fingers on the Dominican pulse and the results are, to say the least, very interesting. A full 92% of those interviewed said that they would favor an "iron fist" figure as their preferred candidate in the next presidential elections, while 79% of respondents said that a woman could be elected President. Nearly seven out of ten people said that they would support an "iron fist" candidate very "strongly." The survey, taken during the first week of December, also showed that a large majority, 63%, say that the new tax correction will be bad for the country. Only 25% think that it will be beneficial.
Santiago, the golf community and DR1 mourn the death of 33-year old Dominican golf champion Marco Midence of colon cancer complications on Friday morning in Tampa, Florida. Midence was an executive at Banco Popular in Santiago. He was the son of Luis Midence, who compiles the DR1 Daily News and is a professor at the PUCMM university in Santiago, and Asuncion Comas, mathematics professor at the PUCMM. He was married to Patricia Grullon, with whom they have two daughters.
http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/57489-hillbillys-heart.html
On Friday night, the Gigantes defeated the Tigres del Licey in a slugfest in San Francisco de Macoris, 12-10. The Gigantes lead the head-to-head series 5-4. Over in San Pedro de Macoris, the high-flying Aguilas squeezed out a 4-3 victory over the Estrellas Orientales who appear to be in danger of missing the playoffs. In Santo Domingo, the Azucareros from La Romana extended the hapless Leones de Escogido's new losing streak to three games, beating them in the "Lion's Den" of the Estadio Quisqueya, 8-3.
On Saturday night, the Leones del Escogido reacted and defeated the league leading Gigantes in Santo Domingo, 4-1. Over in San Pedro de Macoris, the Tigres del Licey defeated the Estrellas, 11-5. In Santiago, the game between the Azucareros and the Aguilas Cibaenas was begun with a minute of silence for Marco Raul Midence, the outstanding golfer who passed away after a brief fight with cancer. Starting pitcher, Jose Lima, a good golfing partner of Marco during the last tournament, dedicated the game and promised a victory to his fallen friend. The Aguilas won 7-5.
On Sunday, the champion Tigres del Licey defeated the Leones del Escogido 3-2, in the Estadio Quisqueya. Licey rallied from a one-run deficit in the eighth inning to snatch the victory. In San Francisco de Macoris, the Aguilas Cibaenas won with a seven-run rally in the top of the eighth inning and defeated the Gigantes by a score of 7-1. The victory brought the Aguilas into a first place tie with the Gigantes with just four more games on the regular schedule. The Azucareros got a great victory over in La Romana when they beat the Estrellas Orientales, 5-4, and closed in on the important fourth place slot for the playoffs.
Standings
| Team | W-L | Avg. | Games Behind |
| Gigantes | 30 - 16 | .652 | -- |
| Aguilas | 30 - 16 | .652 | -- |
| Licey | 27 - 19 | .587 | 3.0 |
| Estrellas | 19 - 27 | .413 | 11.0 |
| Azucareros | 17 - 29 | .370 | 13.0 |
| Escogido | 15 - 31 | .326 | 16.0 |
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