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The 51st and 52d States

Puerto Rico wants to change its status as a highly dependent commonwealth of the United States. A Senate bill would offer Puerto Ricans a chance to vote on statehood, improved commonwealth status, or independence. However, there is debate around whether the options provided are fair to Puerto Ricans. While polls now show a narrow majority of Puerto Ricans favor statehood, others argue the Senate bill is unfairly stacked toward statehood and does not adequately represent an improved commonwealth option. For the referendum to be meaningful, Congress must clarify the options without bias so Puerto Ricans can determine their fate through a fair and balanced vote.

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Luis E. Meléndez Cintrón
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69 views3 pages

The 51st and 52d States

Puerto Rico wants to change its status as a highly dependent commonwealth of the United States. A Senate bill would offer Puerto Ricans a chance to vote on statehood, improved commonwealth status, or independence. However, there is debate around whether the options provided are fair to Puerto Ricans. While polls now show a narrow majority of Puerto Ricans favor statehood, others argue the Senate bill is unfairly stacked toward statehood and does not adequately represent an improved commonwealth option. For the referendum to be meaningful, Congress must clarify the options without bias so Puerto Ricans can determine their fate through a fair and balanced vote.

Uploaded by

Luis E. Meléndez Cintrón
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The 51st and 52d States; Let Puerto

Ricans Decide Their Fate, but Fairly


Published: April 1, 1990
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Puerto Rico is not America's Lithuania, but it is unhappy with its


status as a highly dependent commonwealth. An overwhelming
majority of 3.3 million islanders are agreed that they want
change. But as Congress is learning, agreement stops there. What
adds to the perplexity is a parallel but unrelated campaign to
grant statehood to the District of Columbia.

A Senate bill supported by the Bush Administration would offer


Puerto Ricans a chance to choose, by a binding vote next year,
statehood, improved commonwealth status or independence.
The problem is to assure a fair choice. If one or another side has
plausible reasons for charging bad faith, the referendum could
prolong the argument it is meant to end.

Polls for the first time show a narrow majority of Puerto Ricans
now favors statehood. As sentiment has shifted, so has the tone
of a longstanding debate. Statehood supporters now join with
advocates of independence in decrying colonialism. Those
clamoring for enhanced commonwealth status contend that the
Senate bill is frontloaded unfairly in favor of statehood.

The argument springs from a complicated history. The U.S.


acquired Puerto Rico from Spain almost incidentally in 1900. In
1917, Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens, but not until 1947 did
they elect a Governor. Five years later, Congress approved an
ingenious commonwealth arrangement, giving a Spanish-
speaking island home rule and exemption from Federal taxes but
no vote in Federal elections.

Economically, the plan made sense. Using an additional tax


break known as Section 936 of the revenue code, Puerto Rico has
provided generous incentives for mainland investors. But
politically, the island has been virtually a ward of Congress,
without the clout it would wield with two senators and six or
seven representatives, plus a Presidential vote.

This sense of being second-class citizens has given potent


impetus to the statehood campaign. As statehood sentiment has
waxed, so has uncertainty about Puerto Rico's tax exemptions,
causing investors to hold back. To end the debate once and for
all, Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon, a commonwealth advocate,
proposed a binding referendum.

But he now faults the Senate bill as ''terribly, dangerously


unbalanced.'' It would phase in Federal taxes and phase out
Section 936 over four years. Meanwhile, says the Congressional
Budget Office, statehood could cost other U.S. taxpayers as much
as $9.4 billion in additional Federal social spending; more than
half the island's population remains below the national poverty
line.

A very different view is taken by former Gov. Carlos Romero


Barcelo, a statehood proponent. He persuasively cites similar
preferential treatment granted other incoming states. Congress
can redress the balance by rewording the commonwealth choice
to give its proponents more of what they seek: an increased
international role, an open port for air carriers, a voice in Federal
appointments and jurisdiction over natural resources.

What is unarguable and fundamental is Puerto Rico's right to


self-determination. The choice is primarily between two forms of
association with the United States. Even the minority favoring
independence relies on reason rather than passion. Congress can
reciprocate by specifying clearly and fairly what Puerto Ricans
can expect, whichever way they vote.

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