Ricky Rossello Quotes

I'd want Puerto Rico to become the 51st state of America.

Regardless of what ideological twist people may have, about 90 to 95 percent of our population [in Puerto Rico] really values our citizenship. It's of utmost importance.

I am 38 years old, and I want to live in Puerto Rico and I want to create a path forward for growth. I realize that have come at the most challenging times to become governor, but I want to push things forward.

There's one last thing we need to point out. And it is a fact that Puerto Rico is a colonial territory of the United States. This puts us in a very significant disadvantage to all of the other states and to all of the other American citizens. As a matter of comparative, the U.S. citizens, the Puerto Ricans that live in the United States have much better incomes, more than twice as much, participate in the labor force of greater scales, have better results in the education system and so forth.

The truth of the matter is that we are being very aggressive, so that we can lay the foundations for investors to come to Puerto Rico, for jobs to be created, and for opportunities to ensue. And our objective, again, is for Puerto Rico, for the people of Puerto Rico who want to stay here, for them to have the opportunity to stay here.

The one key difference is that Puerto Rico is a colonial territory. We don't have representation. We have a difficult time getting funding from the federal government. This is critical component that we need to change.

I know that, with clear leadership, with a clear path forward, understanding that the times are tough and that there are great challenges, if we put a step in the right direction, I think we can push forward for a better Puerto Rico and, of course, renegotiation efforts with different creditors, so that it is something that is reasonable for them and something that is reasonable for us.

We're trying our best to develop sort of strategies. We have already turned into law a labor reform law that will allow for more opportunities to ensue. We have also established a permits law that will facilitate permits in Puerto Rico. We are about to roll out a comprehensive tax reform that will enhance the base and will reduce the rates in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is not a full part of the United States. We're a territory or a colonial territory.