For Mr. Baker, each year has been worse than the one before. He first opened his business here 25 years ago, not too far from the University of Puerto Rico. At one time, 23 employees served up pasteles and tortas. Now he has one worker, and his daughter, a recent college graduate who cannot find a job, also works behind the counter. Sales have plummeted 50 percent and, over the years, he has been forced to close two other businesses.

Taxes continue to go up. But so do other costs. Living on an island, many business owners must ship their goods in from a mainland port, already a costly proposition. But a 1920 law, the Jones Act, which requires Puerto Rico to receive its shipments from the United States on American-built ships with mainly American crews, makes the cost of transporting goods even more expensive. Recently, it got costlier, Mr. Baker said.

Now there is a chorus of calls for Congress to relax the law as it relates to Puerto Rico. And some powerful Democrats are rallying behind the idea of granting Puerto Rico, a commonwealth, the ability to file bankruptcy for some of its debt-laden agencies.

“I have to pass some of these costs on to customers,” Mr. Baker lamented, a tray of bread at the ready and an espresso machine churning in the background. For example, the price of ham, he said, recently increased for him to $2.39 a pound from $1.19 a pound because of shipping costs. “So we have fewer customers. Some months nothing is left over for us after we have paid the bills.”

The high cost of electricity and water in Puerto Rico also make running his bakery, and paying his bills at home, all the harder. “I am stuck here because I have no alternatives,” he said. “I don’t have the opportunity now to even try.”

Many others in Puerto Rico, including a stream of professionals and middle-class workers, have sought alternatives. They have moved to the mainland for jobs and better prospects. Over the past decade, Puerto Rico has lost more than 5 percent of its population, which now numbers 3.6 million, according to a New York Federal Reserve report. An additional 250,000 people are expected to leave by 2020, according to the Puerto Rico Planning Board.