Measures taken by Pérez included privatizing state companies, tax reform, reducing customs duties, and diminishing the role of the state in the economy. He also took measures to decentralize and modernize the Venezuelan political system by the direct election of state governors, who had previously been appointed by the president. The most controversial part of the economic reform package was the reduction of the gasoline subsidies, which had long maintained domestic gasoline prices far beneath international levels and even the production costs. On the weekend of 25–26 February 1989, gasoline prices rose 100 per cent, as had been laid out in the economic adjustment program announced by the government on February 16. The fuel price increase in turn necessitated an increase in public transportation fares of 30 per cent officially, and more in practice as some carriers refused to limit their prices to the official rate.