Some stats: 18,000 hotel rooms renting at an avg. of $315/night, 300,000 yearly cruise passengers, average Mexican makes under $1000/month

Just short of 2,000 new rooms will be coming on line in our state this year, and next year an additional 1700 new rooms will be joining us. Can we absorb them?

Well, in the first quarter of this year we were about 80% full, with an average room rate of $315 per night. In two years we will have a total of 18, 412 rooms.

And then there's the folks who don't require a pillow. In the first quarter of this year we entertained 93 cruise ship arrivals, which washed up 300,800 passengers onto our shores.

We're all going to have to scrunch together and make room, which we can do. The problems arise in the barrios with the influx of workers and their families who come over from the mainland for these good jobs. Already many of our schools are on double shift, with kids getting out of school after dark. It's hard to tax them enough to build more infrastructure for them when they make less than $1000 a month. May we remind you the foreigners are paying $315 a night for the rooms these folks clean? Tip large.