The weekly meeting between President Javier Milei and PRO party chairman Mauricio Macri bore fruit on Tuesday at the head of state’s meeting with Buenos Aires City Mayor Jorge Macri confirming the transfer of 31 bus lines to the orbit of the capital. The conversations between the President and ex-president have served to calm tempers and put the La Libertad Avanza administration, which had become entangled, back on track.
Yet the fiscal impact on City Hall’s coffers will be heavy – almost 7.5 billion pesos monthly in order not to modify bus fares in the short term. The Mayor himself declared in a press conference that the main “effort” is being made by society. Jorge Macri is obliged to endorse the agreement in the Legislature.
The Mayor left Government House satisfied after a photo of himself working with the President, Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos and the top national and municipal transport officials, Franco Mogetta and Pablo Bereciartúa respectively.
The objective for the national government is to continue adjusting and reordering its fiscal accounts by removing subsidies while at the same time transferring responsibilities. For the City, the announcements serve to show hands-on governance, empathy with the problems facing the middle and working classes and achieving a co-ordinated transfer after the Milei government’s untimely announcement.
Mayor Macri declared that federal revenue-sharing, a sensitive issue for City Hall which it is litigating at the Supreme Court, was not discussed at the meeting. The national government makes weekly transfers of federal revenue-sharing funds while the City wants them daily and automatic.
The definition is in the hands of the Supreme Court, currently distant from the Casa Rosada.
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