Rise of the Argentine Empire

In La Pampa Province, the average temperature at the end of April ranges from 10°C to 20°C. The weather is cold, with an average daytime temperature of 20°C, feeling as cool as a low-setting air conditioner in summer, and even a bit chilly in the mornings.

San Jose spent the entire day with the people of La Pampa Province at Harvest Square. Elena, with her delivery date approaching, quietly listened to the radio in the hospital. Their eldest daughter, Britney, could already walk and was babbling, being closest to her grandfather. San Jose also often made time to be with her.

On the day of the inauguration, due to the increasingly complex situation, the military and police maintaining order surrounded Blanca City like an iron barrel.

The entire city was filled with San Jose's supporters, many even coming from out of town just to witness the ceremony.

The vast area of Harvest Goddess Square was large enough to accommodate the massive crowd. The large-scale building complex built in the Ahriche district was largely opened today, easily accommodating two to three hundred thousand people.

After Ahriche district became the seat of the provincial government, San Jose carried out a frenzied construction effort and designated it as a key area for attracting investment, urgently needing a large population.

The inauguration ceremony was also a key event for Ahriche district to attract new residents.

New Cohen Heavy Industries registered several arms research institutes here, as well as pharmaceutical companies, research departments of electronic and electrical equipment companies, banks, and many other high-end factories.

San Jose also took the opportunity to heavily advertise, hoping to give Ahriche district a larger population. The popularity was still not enough; compared to the hundreds of thousands of people in Alta district, Ahriche district only had about 60,000 people.

"…President Alanbrule, the speakers of the Senate and House of Representatives, Mr. Chief Justice… citizens of La Pampa Province…"

"We should not view today as a victory for one political party, but as a victory for the cause of freedom—a symbol of ending, but also a symbol of a new beginning—meaning continuity, but also meaning greater development and change."

"La Pampa Province needs development, economic progress, more employment and exports. I hope that in the future, it will not only be Blanca City's success, but the success of the entire La Pampa Province. I hope Blanca City can truly serve as a locomotive, driving the development of the entire La Pampa Province. I hope that the future changes in La Pampa Province can provide some small experience for my beloved Argentine Republic…"

Seeing the people of La Pampa respect him so much, a surge of heroic feeling welled up in San Jose's heart, amidst cheers and flowers.

Santa Rosa City, now the second largest city in La Pampa Province, still holds a very high position. Funds allocated from La Pampa Province are continuously invested in production, and the population of Santa Rosa City has already exceeded 100,000.

The citizens of Blanca City, both new and old, are almost all grateful to San Jose, which has made the citizens of Blanca City truly feel a sense of belonging to La Pampa Province.

As the capital of the province, its status is constantly rising, various environments are slowly improving, and there are many employment opportunities.

The masses were in continuous revelry, and the people of La Pampa simply shouted "Dear High Official!" again and again.

Today was already early winter, and the wind blowing from the waters of Blanca Bay carried a biting chill, but this did not affect the cheers of the people in the slightest.

In the evening,

San Jose gazed at the starry sky and the continuous lights along the shore of Blanca Bay, and a sense of emotion arose spontaneously. People set off fireworks one after another.

The sleepless night sky was exceptionally magnificent.

A bright moon and stars rose, and the sky was exceptionally clear.

Many residential areas also appeared on the south bank of Blanca Bay.

…

After the passion subsided, San Jose officially began to build a brand new development team for the provincial government.

San Jose had already successfully transformed the Radical Civic Union in Blanca City, and had a group of followers within the party, some of whom were so passionate that they even planned to dedicate their lives to their respected Mr. Cohen.

After the provincial elections, there would be elections for the major city halls below. San Jose had to ensure that the Radical Civic Union could have a say.

San Jose had to have the cooperation of the city councils and mayors below in order to complete the upcoming centralization plan.

The handover of the new provincial government team was very fast.

The Radical Civic Union quickly filled the power vacuum, and they were all experienced officials from Blanca City.

The rise of these people also left many positions in Blanca City, allowing more outstanding talents to be discovered and cultivated.

San Jose still planned to continue to increase heavy industrial development, while light industry would only be provided with policy support.

Puerto Colorado began to prepare for the establishment of a large-scale iron and steel conglomerate.

Otto City planned to introduce an oil refining enterprise to develop the petrochemical industry.

Santa Rosa City focused on the development of mining and processing, non-ferrous metal processing, the electric power industry, and the oil refining and chemical industry.

Other cities also began to have money.

However, most of the support was given to coastal cities.

San Jose did not intend to simply transfuse blood.

Instead, he planned to focus on planning based on the city's endowments, but currently, several cities were under San Jose's control.

…

La Pampa Province now has a total of 41 cities, including town-level cities, autonomous cities, autonomous counties, and super-large combined cities like Blanca City.

La Pampa Province has a land area of 164,000 square kilometers and has its own wide outlet to the sea. The population has increased sharply from 580,000 when it first merged with Blanca City to 2.03 million, not including the various short-term floating populations that have not been counted.

Among them, the city of Bahía Blanca has a huge area, integrating the cities originally brought in from the Province of Buenos Aires. The same is true for the three coastal cities. However, other autonomous cities and towns in the province have small areas, ranging from tens to hundreds of square kilometers.

José plans to merge a bunch of cities in the province to form a scale similar to prefecture-level cities in later generations of New China, forming a stronger development force, just like the reforms he conducted in San Martín and Bahía Blanca, merging counties and autonomous cities.

Small cities with a few hundred or a few thousand people are not enough to provide space for development. Their strength is weak and dispersed. When it comes to playing the game of centralization, it can be said that in Argentina, if José says he is second, no one dares to say they are first.

The municipal elections in various places were held very smoothly. The Radical Civic Union won the city hall seats in 27 cities in the province, and also occupied a large part of the parliamentary seats.

Bahía Blanca also successfully won the election. José's original deputy mayor also won the position of mayor.

Through the operation of the Radical Civic Union, José has opened up the relationship between the provincial finance department and the municipal finance department, successfully won the financial power, and then began to prepare for the establishment of the National Bank of La Pampa Province. With the money bag, all the work can be carried out more smoothly.

And the largest financial and tax resource in La Pampa Province is Bahía Blanca. The other cities and counties are not worth mentioning.

Even the second largest city, Santa Rosa, has developed rapidly thanks to the strong tax revenue support from Bahía Blanca.

Therefore, José's first task is to collect all the tax revenue and financial power of La Pampa Province.

José focuses on major tax sources and lets go of the minor ones, cultivating more and stronger companies, while increasing the starting amount for tax collection. He has carried out standardized reforms on value-added tax, consumption tax and other taxes, and established a market management office.

At the same time, the tax police system was completely established.

Argentina's taxes are actually very high and relatively chaotic, which leads to more serious tax evasion.

José streamlined various tax systems, simplified and standardized them, and at the same time launched a publicity machine to encourage legal tax payment.

This cannot be solved in a short time, but the situation is starting to improve.

Companies with monthly sales of more than 100,000 US dollars actually do not pay high taxes and will also receive various policy support. For example, employing people with disabilities can get financial and tax rebates, and even financial and tax subsidies.

The tax base of Bahía Blanca has not increased for a long time.

This is related to the thinking of ordinary Argentine citizens, and also related to the chaotic growth in the early stage. The amount of hidden taxes is actually very large.

Less than a week after the establishment of the Provincial Government, La Pampa's financial and tax revenue increased by 17%, and the amount of registered tax payments increased significantly, which is the power of the system.

This is still based on a 11% reduction in the scale of tax collection.

Various financial standardization tasks began to be carried out. To be listed on the exchange, you must have complete financial statements.

Moreover, the number of companies in Bahía Blanca that do foreign trade is increasing by more than 100 every month, and the amount of exports is increasing significantly.

The establishment of the new customs has given La Pampa Province the power to collect tariffs.

This gives José another source of financial and tax revenue.

In addition to tightening and expanding the money bag, José accelerated the speed of administrative division adjustments.

A new official takes office with three fires. The new senior official José quickly contacted all the new mayors of La Pampa Province, assigned tasks, and directly started the administrative division adjustment work.

José is not simply carrying it out forcefully, but inducing it with benefits. The Finance Department needs to spend a large amount of financial tax revenue every month.

This in itself is very attractive.

Cities with a jurisdiction area of less than 2,000 square kilometers are excluded from financial subsidies.

And counties are not eligible for financial subsidies.

Under the triple guarantee, the city merger is progressing quite smoothly, and even many cities have arranged the merger themselves in order to obtain financial subsidies.

Of course, the specific administrative division changes require the approval of the Provincial Government and the Argentine Congress.

However, the city halls of small cities do not even have a few people. After the office location is changed, and a prestigious person is selected as the mayor, others who are willing can become district chiefs, and those who are unwilling can also receive funding.

The first fire burned to Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa directly expanded 6 times, directly merging the surrounding 2 counties, expanding from 1,500 square kilometers to 9,400 square kilometers, and the population increased from 110,000 to 140,000.

Then the three coastal cities expanded, each merging 2-3 counties and towns in the inland to expand their jurisdiction.

The simple first step of merging is not of great significance. The important thing is the reorganization of administrative divisions and city hall parliaments.

The second step is to truly integrate them and gradually change the original administrative institutions.

With financial power and financing rights, José is preparing to initiate the construction of a new canal and a provincial highway, connecting the Colorado River and Bahía Blanca Bay.

After fully completing resource allocation, La Pampa Province directly changed from 41 autonomous cities to 14, and the strength of each city has also been greatly strengthened, and they are basically located at the core railway stations.

With the strong operation of the Radical Civic Union and the advancement of the La Pampa Defense Army, this reform proceeded smoothly.

After the merger of cities, counties and towns, the parliament and city hall teams were reorganized. Some of the mayors became district chiefs, while others, with the support of the Cohen Consortium, planned to run for members of the House of Representatives.

And the old La Pampa Parliament is also re-electing.

Of course, José will not let go of this opportunity to penetrate into the House of Representatives and the Senate, and now that he has broken his face, he must arrange his own talents.

Strike while the iron is hot.

No matter how complicated the situation is, after taking financial power and military power, La Pampa Province was directly built into an iron barrel by José.

The opponents of La Pampa have also completely restrained themselves, panicked and uneasy.