High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 2006 Puerto Rico budget crisis was a political, economic, and social crisis that saw much of the government of Puerto Rico shut down after it ran out of funds near the end of the 2005–2006 fiscal year. The shut down lasted for two weeks from 1 May 2006 through 14 May 2006, leaving nearly 100,000 public employees without pay and closing more than 1,500 public schools. The crisis was publicly criticized by the business sector, non-profit organizations, Puerto Rican celebrities, and the general public (by means of opinion polls), and was described as the consequence of a political power struggle between the Commonwealth`s main opposing political parties: the Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party.