Axel Kicillof, governor of the province of Buenos Aires, said yesterday that Javier Milei and José Luis Espert’s call for tax resistance in the province “is horrifying”. He said that telling citizens not to pay taxes is “very serious” and pointed out that “it is the first time that a President encourages people to break the law”.
The Governor began a press conference yesterday in La Plata saying: “He swore to enforce the Constitution and he is not doing it. Each of these attacks aims at a specific person. Now he mentioned me, but he attacked the governors of Chubut, Córdoba and Santa Fe before that; also, journalists and artists. With each fit of rage, he picks a person”, said Kicillof and concluded that “this attack is not against a governor, but against the people, because he wants to create a problem with basic services and benefits”.
On Saturday, José Luis Espert, President of the Commission for Budget and Taxes of the Lower Chamber of Congress, said that “people shouldn’t pay the rise of urban and rural taxes on real estate properties and automobiles” in the province of Buenos Aires. The rise of these taxes was voted by most political parties of the Buenos Aires Legislature as part of the 2024 Tax Act.
In this sense, during the press conference, Gov. Kicillof said that “our province is working hard to protect the income of our people, when we have an unprecedented inflation caused by the national government’s economic program, which consists of devaluating and releasing prices, together with the depretiating wages and pensions”.
“These are the craziest liberals in the world. They limit and regulate the income of pensioners and workers. However, in our province, we are trying to give people something back from all that Milei is taking away”, said Kicillof before announcing a 13,5% raise in the wages of provincial state workers, police officers and pensioners. The governor underlined that “this goes to show what we do with provincial taxes: we pay the wages of 100,000 police officers, 25,000 health workers, 300,000 teachers and 80,000 schools employees”, while adding that “we have also repaired 8,000 schools and built 216 new ones; we have built 6 new hospitals and 157 health centers; we gave the Police 5,000 new patrol cars and we paved roads and streets”.
“That’s what we do in the province of Buenos Aires with our taxes: we give people more rights, we uphold people’s income and we support businesses”, said Kicillof, while rejecting that the province “squanders its resources”.
“We cannot squander what we do not have. This is the province that spens the least amount of money per resident. Buenos Aires and Córdoba are the provinces with the smallest number of employees; we are an austere province”, said Kicillof, and reminded the public that Buenos Aires “contributes with 40% of national resources and receives just 20% of joint participation funds”.
According to Kicillof, the call for tax resistance “could be a vendetta for the Senate’s rejection of the President’s decree, which was an unconstitutional decree”.
“I urge the President to come out, to walk around the province and see what is going on in its neighborhoods. The reality is different from what he can see from the presidential residence in Olivos or from Twitter. He is not aware of the damage and suffering he is causing with his brutal austerity program”, he said.
Legal complaints
Even though officials stated that the provincial government won’t be taking any legal actions against the national government for encouraging tax resistance, there have been legal complaints presented in this sense.
Attorney Valeria Carreras filed a complaint against Espert yesterday at Federal Court #9 for “public intimidation” and instigation to a felony.
Raise
The province of Buenos Aires announced a raise of provincial state workers and teachers’ wages
Governor Kicillof announced yesterday a collective bargaining agreement with the unions that represent provincial state workers and teachers for a 13,5% raise in wages of March and a 46% raise for pensions.
This adds to a 76% rise of social aid benefits and 118% rise in scholarships and social benefits for children and teenagers.
Last month, the provincial government gave provincial state workers and teachers a 20% raise, while in January they received a 25% raise.