Word: statehooder
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Puerto Rico's first chance since 1967 to determine its political future, residents voted to maintain commonwealth status by a plurality of 48.4 percent, with statehood following closely with 46.2 percent...
...progress has stalled. Industrial development has failed so far to move the island's per capita income close to mainland levels. Unemployment is now 18%, and half the people get some form of public assistance. This year Congress voted to reduce the 936 tax benefit starting in 1994. Statehood would accelerate 936's demise. "It would be a disaster," says Alex Maldonado, a former newspaper editor who is writing an economic history of the island. "The statehooders have no alternative economic model...
That prediction assumes the wholesale flight of American companies if they must pay full corporate taxes. False alarm, the statehooders reply; the U.S. is expanding trade with Latin America, and Puerto Rico is a natural gateway. While affluent Puerto Ricans would have to pay federal income tax for the first time, the working poor and the unemployed would get higher benefits as welfare payments rose to meet mainland levels. Rossello promises that for every new dollar going to Washington, three would return in the form of higher assistance. Senator Ruben Berrios, head of the Independence Party, quips...
...statehood wins, the Hispanic caucus in Congress and sympathizers in the Senate will sponsor legislation to admit Puerto Rico into the Union. But if the winning vote is slim, the island's case may be marooned in committee for an extended period. Congress fears that a Puerto Rican application would revive the District of Columbia's bid for statehood -- an issue that the body has assiduously avoided. New states mean new political math. The island, for example, would get two Senators and six Representatives, taking away seats from other parts of the country and expanding the Hispanic bloc on Capitol...
...worst fear," says Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, "is that Puerto Rico votes for statehood, Congress ducks, and we're unmasked as opponents of self-determination...