New Rio Mayor Warns of Coming Austerity Measures

(ATR) Rio de Janeiro is broke and thus, it cannot spend.

At least, that is the message from the newly inaugurated mayor Marcelo Crivella. In his first speech as the mayor of Rio, Crivella warned of upcoming, necessary austerity measures for the city.

Crivella’s warnings come a week after outgoing mayor Eduardo Paes painted a positive picture for the finances of the marvelous city. Over the last year and a half Brazil has fallen into its worst recession in over a century. So far in 2016 Brazil’s economy has contracted close to three percent, and forecasters have downgraded outlooks for 2017.

In addition, many of Brazil’s states have large deficits, leading to a sharp contraction of social services and emergency bailouts from the federal government. Rio de Janeiro was one of the hardest hit states in 2016, requiring the declaration of a financial "state of calamity" to pay state employees during the Olympics.

During Brazil's 2016 municipal elections many citizens sought to move away from corruption-laden political class through the ballot box. Rio may have elected a mayor that was previously a Senator, but he is the first evangelical to be elected to a municipal executive position in Brazil.

Crivella’s election also was seen as a major upset against outgoing mayor Eduardo Paes. Paes’ chosen successor, Pedro Paulo, did not garner enough votes to make it to the runoff municipal election. Paes was also seen as a close ally with unpopular President Michel Temer, as both belong to the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party.

Upon the completion of his mandate, Paes commissioned a study of the state of Rio’s finances. The conclusions of the study showed Rio avoided much of the financial crash that has plagued Brazil through cutting costs and necessary infrastructure upgrades.

Crivella assumed the mayorship on January 1, warning of upcoming austerity and painting a bleaker picture for Rio’s finances.

"The order is as follows: it is forbidden to spend," Crivella said. "The time is of crisis. The Government would lack the true authority and legitimate power of persuasion if it did not impose on itself the behavior it expects from others."

Backing up his word, Crivella says the number of government positions within his cabinet have been halved in order to lessen the number of paid municipal employees. He said that the government will scour every contract to ensure that it is necessary. He also suggested that Rio continue to look for public-private partnerships to help ailing public works facilities such as hospitals.

Crivella says that he will "not be the mayor of illusions," and "Rio de Janeiro will have the Government that [it] demanded at the polls." In addition to promoting austerity, Crivella spoke at length about working to alleviate the income inequality that plagues Rio. He spoke of the potential of those in the favelas and how government programs have failed them the past.

"Rio only grows when each of its citizens grows in knowledge, health, housing, peace and freedom," Crivella said.

One day after his inauguration Crivella appeared at a local municipal hospital to donate blood as a way to reinforce his words of austerity. Other Brazilian mayors around the country participated in similar shows. The newly elected populist mayor of Sao Paulo dressed up as a garbage worker as a metaphor promising to clean up the city.

It was not a surprise that here was no mention of the recent 2016 Olympic Games in Crivella’s address. During his campaign, Crivella sought to move away from the Olympics, going as far to criticize some of the Games' legacy plans. In the final days of the Paes administration, management of stadiums in the Olympic Park were turned over to the sports ministry. The ministry assumed control of the park after a bidding process for private companies did not find any takers to meet the demand for a 25 year lease. The federal government will manage two of the Carioca Arenas, the tennis center, the velodrome and the dismantling of the Future Arena to be re-purposed as part of the agreement.

Written by Aaron Bauer

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.