The conservative group Frontiers of Freedom is amplifying a demand by Republican Congressman Paul Gosar (Arizona), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee's Investigations Subcommittee, urging Puerto Rico's Financial Oversight and Management Board (JSF) to legally challenge municipal construction taxes ('arbitrio') imposed on federally funded reconstruction projects. The group says the JSF should file a motion before Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who presides over the PROMESA bankruptcy court, calling the tax "illegal." Frontiers of Freedom criticized Governor Jenniffer González Colón's silence, accusing her of seeking federal aid from the Trump administration while allowing those same funds to be illegally taxed.
In July, the group had asked the Inspectors General of the Departments of Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and Energy to investigate whether municipalities were illegally diverting federal reconstruction funds through this tax, in support of contractor Cobra Acquisitions. In August, Gosar sent a letter to the JSF—created a decade ago under the PROMESA law—demanding by September 15 whether the Board would challenge the tax in federal court and disclose total funds collected by municipalities from taxing federally financed projects.
Gosar called the tax "deeply concerning" and asked whether the JSF monitors how municipalities spend such revenues.