The Justicialist bloc in the Santa Fe Chamber of Deputies filed a draft declaration rejecting the national 2027 budget. It was signed by Walter Agosto, Celia Arena, Lucila De Ponti, Sonia Martorano, Verónica Baro Graf, Marcos Corach, Miguel Rabbia and Alejandra Rodenas. The proposal asks the rest of the provincial legislature to support a critical position on fund distribution, infrastructure investment and obligations assigned by the federal government to the provinces.
One central chapter concerns financing for Santa Fe's pension fund. The authors say the bill fails to include the difference the federal government must cover under a 120 billion peso advance agreed by both administrations. According to the supporting text, payments stopped two months after the agreement was signed. The declaration presents this issue as part of a broader dispute over the resources needed to sustain provincial responsibilities.
The document also calculates a decline in investment assigned to Santa Fe. In the lawmakers' reading, funding for projects in the province falls 24.3% in nominal terms from 2026 and 33.5% in real terms. Santa Fe would receive 2.3% of investment distributed across jurisdictions. The national bill lists 15 initiatives, mainly road maintenance, with amounts whose capacity to produce actual work is questioned by the signatories.
Road infrastructure occupies another section. The declaration cites the transfer of 457 projects to provinces and municipalities for 20 years, specifically including the AO12 route. The bloc says Santa Fe would assume maintenance, preservation, rehabilitation and new work without an equivalent increase in federal funds. It does not reject decentralization as such, but calls for funding and implementation rules to accompany the new functions.
The projects considered strategic include expansions of the water treatment plants in the cities of Santa Fe and Granadero Baigorria. The document links its concerns to the dissolution of the national water and sanitation works agency and to reduced housing policy after the elimination of Procrear and the Social Housing Fund. It also says capital transfers for infrastructure would fall 95% in real terms compared with 2023 execution.
Transport adds another distributional dispute. The lawmakers recall that the compensation fund for inland systems was eliminated in 2024 and say the 2027 budget does not restore it. At the same time, they identify 762 billion pesos for transport in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area through the SISTAU and SIFER trusts. The bloc uses the comparison to request a federal approach to subsidies.
The declaration adds social-policy objections. It questions proposed changes to non-contributory disability pensions, the removal of the disability certificate as a direct path to access, and the delegation of requirements to later regulation. It also opposes the end of family allowance indexation, the absence of the national teacher incentive fund and tax benefits for road concessionaires conditioned on similar provincial measures.
The proposal must be considered by the provincial chamber and does not itself change the bill before Congress. Its immediate effect is to establish the Justicialist interbloc's position and seek institutional backing for Santa Fe representatives to press for changes in the national debate. Discussion will continue as specific appropriations, government responses and possible amendments to the 2027 budget become known.
