Proposed adjustments to Puerto Rico's tax incentive framework — among them a 4% rate for those arriving after January 1 and an extension of programme benefits running to 2055 — have drawn fresh legislative scrutiny as policymakers weigh how the rules governing new resident investors might be reshaped. Attracting outside investment and generating public revenue sit in tension with each other on the island, and the proposals represent one attempt to navigate that gap while keeping broader economic development in view.
Bacó-Bagué — who previously led Puerto Rico's economic development secretariat and went on to co-found the Partnership for Modern Puerto Rico — has pointed to a broader question threading through the conversation: whether incentive structures can be designed to open up pathways for residents already living on the island. The approach he brings centres on channelling incoming resources toward participation in the local economy, rooted in experience spanning public service, investment, and business leadership.
Bacó pointed to what he described as the broader economic picture — spanning professional services, business ties, and jobs tied to incoming residents — as a dimension that warrants attention alongside other concerns, framing the movement's core challenge as translating that activity into lasting, concrete gains for Puerto Rican communities. His views on the matter draw on direct familiarity with how the island has managed its economy and adjusted the terms attached to residency programmes aimed at attracting outside investment.
Conversations around tax policy and wealth inequality tend to grow particularly heated when they move into the public arena. His tenure heading the economic development portfolio between 2013 and 2017 placed him at the centre of a formative stretch for the individual investor movement. Between 2013 and 2016, a total of 961 decrees were granted by the department under what was then known as Act 22.
Bacó described drawing in newcomers as one phase of an economic development process, while noting that lasting results would depend on those residents forming ties with local entrepreneurs and community figures. He added that communicating the tangible advantages for the surrounding community was an area where more effort was needed. Bacó described the movement's next phase as one focused on making its tangible benefits felt across Puerto Rican communities.
Bacó's professional path ran from the family furniture manufacturing operation through accounting, law, corporate management, investment, and public administration, and he has described building new ventures and steering organisations through expanded responsibilities as his core competency. Drawing on that foundation, an academy and mentoring programme he is associated with connects entrepreneurs and executives with guidance aimed at shaping the direction of their professional lives.
Bacó drew a distinction between two modes of participation: everyday residents who channel spending into the local economy through routine purchases and professional services — such as accountants, legal counsel, architects, property managers, and artists — and a separate group of entrepreneurs and investors who contribute outside capital, specialised knowledge, and cross-border commercial networks. He identified developers, financial-sector professionals, technology entrepreneurs, and insurance and banking executives as the kinds of profiles whose presence could drive this type of activity, adding that their participation might open doors for local businesses to absorb new operational approaches, forge partnerships, and reach international markets.
Bacó channels that perspective into work with PMPR — a nonprofit co-founded in 2017 — which brings together long-standing local businesses, newer arrivals, members of the Puerto Rican diaspora, and multinational corporations to pursue shared goals. Bridging gaps between groups that arrive with distinct networks, resources, and economic priorities sits at the heart of what it was designed to do. Bacó characterises the collaboration as having entered a new phase, through which that work continues to take shape.
Among the stated aims are guiding early-stage founders through mentorship, establishing a development fund oriented toward targeted economic projects, fostering walkable city neighbourhoods by way of hospitality and arts programming, and broadening the global profile of artists from Puerto Rico. Three interlocking pillars shape how Bacó has structured the work: direct grounding in economic policy, the nonprofit's partnerships with private-sector players, and outreach around what the movement has meant for daily life in Puerto Rico.
Documenting the ways newcomers give back to island life — through business ventures that draw in local professionals and residents — forms the basis of a proposed editorial series. Bacó has framed the broader takeaway as centring on how the structure of incentives governs who gains entry to economic opportunity. Where tax structures prove welcoming to outside capital and new residents, he has argued, the staying power of that attraction tends to hinge on what gets built at the ground level — interconnected professional networks, pooled knowledge, and an economic base rooted in the place itself.
