Puerto Rican Statehood: The Real Challenges

by Brian Witt

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has been in the news quite a bit lately, due to it having just held its presidential primary election.  While Puerto Ricans cannot vote in the U.S. presidential election, both Republicans and Democrats allow residents of the island to elect delegates to their national conventions.  Mitt Romney won the primary with an overwhelming 83% of the vote, but most of the media attention was caused by Rick Santorum's contention that Puerto Rican statehood was undesirable, because English is not the official language of the island and would create linguistic conflicts with the mainland. This comment cost Santorum dearly, as the vast majority of those who identify with the GOP on Puerto Rico are members of the New Progressive Party, which advocates strongly for admittance as the 51st state.

While Santorum was widely (and correctly) criticized for his remarks, what would the impact of Puerto Rican statehood be, both for the island and the rest of the United States?  To understand this issue, we must first examine Puerto Rico's current, unique status within the United States.  Since 1917, Puerto Ricans have been full citizens of the United States, and any who move off the island to the mainland have the same legal rights and responsibilities as any other U.S. citizen.  Since 1952, Puerto Rico has been known as a "Free Associated State," a status in-between full statehood and independence, which is similar (though not identical) to the statuses of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Under the FAS, Puerto Ricans have most of the rights of mainland citizens, such as constitutional protections and liberties, full use of the U.S. federal court system, protection of the military and federal agencies, and representation abroad through the Department of State. The major differences between Puerto Rico and any state are political representation and taxation. Puerto Ricans (who have their own fully functional commonwealth legislature and governor) cannot vote in presidential elections, and instead of electing congressmen and senators, can send one non-voting delegate to Congress. However, Puerto Ricans are also exempt from federal income taxes.  Corporations doing business with entities other than the U.S. government are also exempt from a variety of federal taxes and regulations. At the same time, Puerto Ricans are not eligible for a variety of social welfare programs; for instance, Medicaid spending is capped at 15% of what it would be if Puerto Rico was a full state.

Thus the implications for Puerto Rican statehood would be largely two-fold:  firstly, what effect would it have upon federal elections and political processes; and secondly, what would the effects be on federal tax revenue and expenditures?  It is challenging to predict how Puerto Rico would vote in elections since it has its own vibrant two-and-a-half party system, with supporters of statehood largely backing the mainland GOP, continuing the FAS backing Democrats, and the remainder of independence supporters largely ignoring mainland politics.  On the whole the statehood and GOP supporting NPP has been more successful lately, which should give Republicans hope. In addition, Puerto Ricans tend to be extremely anti-abortion and socially conservative in general, which would align them more with the GOP.  On the other hand, Puerto Ricans in the U.S. tend to vote Democratic, either strongly so (New York) or slightly (Florida) depending on the state they live in.  Additionally, the increasingly hardline stance taken by Republicans in the South and Southwest towards Hispanic immigrants would probably not endear the party to Puerto Ricans, even if immigration issues are much less salient than among Mexican-Americans.

Puerto Ricans would probably benefit from statehood, even if the U.S. Treasury would not.  While Puerto Rican residents would now be liable for federal income taxes, the low levels of per-capita income would leave most Puerto Ricans with no income tax liability whatsoever.  In 2009, the per capita income in Puerto Rico was about $19,000, extremely high for Latin America, but well below that of the poorest US state Mississippi ($36,000.) A study by the Heritage Foundation concluded that just making Puerto Ricans eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (of which 59% would be eligible upon statehood) would cost taxpayers more than the total remitted by Puerto Ricans to the Treasury. In addition, Puerto Rico would be eligible for full Medicaid and Medicare spending, instead of just 15%, as well as all other federal social welfare programs.  Ironically, Puerto Rican statehood is far more popular on the mainland than in Puerto Rico, even though the island would quickly become per capita the largest beneficiary of social spending in the U.S.

How about one issue that would not arise with Puerto Rican statehood? You guessed it, Santorum's linguistic fears. Contrary to his statement, English is one of the two official languages of the island and a required subject in all Puerto Rican schools. Almost all islanders have some English proficiency, and over a third are fully fluent in English, a number considerably higher than Louisiana and New Mexico when they were admitted to the Union.  In the end, though it is difficult to conclude on whether Puerto Rican statehood is a certainty in the near future, the case for its admission as our nation’s 51^st state is one that gains strength with each generation.