President Hipolito Mejia forwarded the Senate a bill that would permit government workers with two to twenty years of service to opt for a tax-free vehicle. As reported in Hoy, the measure includes the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches as well as the Central Electoral Board (JCE) and the municipal governments, and all those people who have not reached a status of government official but have given 20 years of service. These people would receive a tax exoneration of the equivalent of 100 times the minimum wage. According to the note in Hoy, just about every person that works for the government can hope to attain a tax-free vehicle sooner or later if this bill is enacted.
Ines Aizpun, the sub-director for the Diario Libre, called the move ?shameless? and ?insolent? or all in one word: ?desverguenza.? Her morning column in the widely circulated paper says that if anything was lacking in the catalogue of shameless acts committed from the seat of power, the Executive Branch has made it complete with this proposed legislation. The purposes of the draft, which is dated 7 June but only sent out yesterday, nearly two months after it was written, are clear. Not only will the proposal reduce the income produced from customs duties, and impose heavy pressure on the exchange rate, it would also create certain expectations among the employees of the state, who will fill the offices with petitions, the added cost in imported fuels notwithstanding. The editor says that the city will be saddled with older cars and the dealerships will be filled with exonerations sold at cut-rate prices by those who cannot take advantage of the benefits. Aizpun says that this decision does not recognize anyone?s merits. ?It is an absurd and perverse attempt to create conditions for chaos in the new administration? The country should reject this barbarous project,? she stated. ?This is an unpardonable idea intended to do harm from a government that has not wanted to face up to the real national problems and is trying to create an inferno for the course of action to be taken by the next government. If the National Congress wishes to avoid the shame of being repudiated by sensible people, it should throw this wretched proposal into the wastebasket.?