Sorry, guys, this is a bit off topic (the topic being the Electoral College), but I just had to answer:
Vicki, if you object to paying Federal Taxes you'd certainly object to what you'd pay if you had the right to vote as a state.
No, actually I pay more now.
Believe me, I've done the math. When I first filled out a PR tax return, I was flabbergasted at how high the taxes were. I did a hypothetical, figuring my same income and deductions, calculating federal, NY state and city taxes. My local Puerto Rican taxes were higher than all three of these together.
And now, there is a new federal "Alternate Minimum Tax", which the federal gov't is making me pay *over and above* the Puerto Rican taxes I'm already paying!
You get plenty of protection and benefit from the US constitution unrelated to who is in office. Doesn't that count for something?
Well, as US citizens, I should hope Puerto Ricans get the protection and benefits of the US constitution.
And yeah, it counts for a lot.
Actually, you could ask the residents of Washington DC the same question.
The reason PR isn't a state yet is specifically because the population has refused to vote for assuming the overhead.
I'm not sure what you mean by "assuming overhead". There is a fear that becoming a state would mean paying federal taxes in addition to the PR taxes. People who don't understand how high PR taxes are tend to think, "Well, *I* pay both state and federal taxes, so why shouldn't they?" You really have to understand just how high PR taxes are in order to understand why people fear adding federal tax on top of them.
I personally believe that if PR were a state, local taxes would go down proportionately. Others disagree.
The point of my original post, however, was not whether PR should become a state or not, but rather whether I would like to eliminate the Electoral College, so that I could vote. I would!
- Vicki
