Miami, Florida (The Adobo Chronicles) – Since Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States of America on August 21, 1959, there have been a lot of statehood movements and speculation about which jurisdiction will become the 51st.

Today, more than half a century later, the U.S.A. is looking to welcome not only its 51st,  but its 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th and 58th state of the Union.

An unreleased Gallup poll shows that majority of Americans are in favor of adding up to 8 states to the Union as a way of boosting America’s overall economy. Many believe that the more U.S. citizens there are, the more taxes the government can collect, thus helping reduce the deficit while increasing the Gross National Product (GNP).  Americans are also confident that adding states to the Union will surely create new jobs. Think of all the additional bureaucratic offices that will have to be created by the new states, not to mention the legions of new elective posts.

Initially, there were only 7 jurisdictions being considered for statehood — the Philippines, Puerto Rico and 5 new states in California.  But this week, a new statehood candidate emerged: South Florida.

South Miami Vice Mayor Walter Harris proposed a resolution dividing Florida into two states, and it passed with a 3-2 vote at the city commission meeting on Oct. 7. He says Tallahassee, the state capital, isn’t doing enough to deal with the problem of global warming.

The proposal would chop off the bottom half of Florida — roughly from the city of Orlando down. The new state would include 24 counties.

Previously, there were multiple calls to chop off the entire state of Florida from the U.S. map because of problems it was causing the rest of the country, not the least of which was the problematic election count during the 2000 presidential elections.

This new proposal will chop off just half of the state but the chopped off part will still remain a part of the Union.