Profile: Del. Luis Fortuno, R-Puerto Rico

UPI ^ | 3/14/05 | Lindsey Kerr

[cll]

"the people are lazy, they brag about the money the USA sends them, they take no responsibility for their actions."

Well, ma'am, the prejudice red flag is raised by the above generalization of your authorship. I live in Puerto Rico, and have completed a 22-year military career, am a business executive, in addition to operating a small business on the side. So, I'm a Puerto Rican, who lives in Puerto Rico and lazy I am not. Most if not all the people around me are like that. Tourism is only the six largest industry on the island, but I know for a fact that it is run by very professional and capable individuals. So your observations are patently false and mean-spirited and based on a single event. Drop me a line and I'll refer you to a good tour operator the next time you venture down here. If your honeymoon was more than 20 years ago I can assure you that you'll be impressed by how far we've come along in that short period.

And since I live on the island there is no way I would have voted for Kerry, even if I wanted to, which I didn't.

So all I ask of you and people like you is to stop shooting from the hip, give us your fellow Americans in the territories some slack, and realize that this disenfranchisement and discrimination against millions of citizens of the United States of America must end. 107 years is too much.

[B.O. Plenty]

Thanks....

[TheShadowKnows2005]

Just a small correction to the article re: Fortuño. The comment is made that residents of Puerto Rico "don't pay federal taxes". that statement is not altogether correct. Residents of Puerto Rico who work for the federal government pay federal taxes. Also, residents of the island who DON'T work for the federal government, don't pay federal INCOME tax. They do pay various other federal taxes, however, such as the social security tax, unemployment tax, etc.

I'm not sure if these numbers are right,m becouse I don't have the documents in front of me now, but the relative proportions are correct (in other words, we can change the numbers, but the relationship of one to another will remain the same).

It has been estimated that residents of Puerto Rico, if the island is admitted as a state, would pay about $2.2 billion in diverse federal taxes. Of these, approximately $1.8 billion are already being paid. So the "incremental tax burden" for the new state would not be that significant.

Of course, we are not discussing here whether the federal tax structure, as it exists, and current spending policies, are fair or even appropriate. That is a separate issue. I'm sure if various federal "sink-hole" programs were to be eliminated, the tax burden on ALL american citizens would be justifiably reduced.