Puerto Rico overwhelmingly voted in favor of making the island America's 51st state, but the results are being questioned. The commonwealth filed for municipal bankruptcy in May, and is in the hole for $70 billion owed to various creditors.
Rossello, who heads the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, said his government would fight "in Washington and throughout the world" for the Caribbean island territory to be accepted as the 51st U.S. state, and for Puerto Ricans to gain "all the same opportunities" as other American citizens. The island is now under the thumb of a Fiscal Oversight Board installed by Congress.
It was the lowest level of participation in any election in Puerto Rico since 1967, noted Carlos Vargas Ramos, an associate with the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in NY. If the court rules that Puerto Rico doesn't have claim to any sales-tax revenue, then the island will face "acute cash management issues" that may require it to borrow sales-tax revenue after November 1 from the island's sales-tax agency, the commonwealth said in the court documents.
Those who remain behind have faced new taxes and higher utility bills on an island where food is 22 percent more expensive than the USA mainland and public services are 64 percent more expensive.
In other words, there are many more "takers" than "makers" on the island.
Puerto Rico is circling the drain, financially speaking, but it's not too late for mainland lawmakers to learn from the island's mistakes.
Ricardo Rosselló supports statehood as a way to solve the island's economic disaster.
After the votes were tallied, the Popular Democratic Party called the vote a waste of public money and a stinging humiliation for the government.
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Rosario-Escher says many people also don't support spending $7 million dollars on a referendum at a time when Puerto Rico is in a financial crisis.
The commonwealth has $17.3 billion of sales-tax bonds outstanding and $17.8 billion of general obligation debt and agency bonds sold with the island's general-obligation pledge. The island's bankruptcy process is already under way. That will make it hard for the governor to get Congress to pay much attention to the vote.
Over the past 10 years, people have been exiting Puerto Rico in droves, leaving rock-bottom economic prospects behind for more opportunities and lower taxes in the mainland.Between 2004 and 2016, the island's population declined by about 400,000, or about 11 percent.
Many islanders see the U.S. authority as an intolerable stranglehold, especially considering that President Donald Trump has several times argued against bailing out the territory.
"I pray to God that before I die I see Puerto Rico as the 51st state", Edwin Alicea, an Army veteran, told CNNMoney. According to the State Electoral Commission, 518,000 people voted, which represents 23% of eligible voters.
"We have had U.S. citizenship for 100 years, but it's been a second class one".
The US Congress would need to approve any upgrade to statehood.
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