The Local Debate over Spaceport America
HANSEN: This week, residents of Dona Ana County, New Mexico will vote on a tax hike, which could take them to new heights. This gross receipts tax would go mostly to help the state build a commercial spaceport where companies would blast tourists and experiments into orbit. From member station KRWG in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Evan Woodward reports.
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EVAN WOODWARD (Reporter, KRWG, New Mexico): The first rocket was launched at the barren Spaceport America site on September 25th of last year. The launch was done using a small, improvised facility with onlookers gathered under large tents. A few minutes later, the rocket came crashing down in the southern New Mexico desert. Currently, the site for the spaceport is home only to cattle, a vast sky, dry climate, and now, a vision of a futuristic space-launch facility.
Virgin Galactic is the company slated to be the anchor tenant at the spaceport. When it's completed, they plan to lease over 83,000 square feet of hangar and terminal facilities. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson has been appearing frequently in the area to support the referendum. He spoke during a rally at a local middle school to tout the prosperity the spaceport will bring to the state.
Governor WILLIAM RICHARDSON III (Democrat, New Mexico): It's going to transform southern New Mexico's economy. It's going to be 5,000 new jobs for the whole region. It's going to mean a billion dollars in revenues for the state.
WOODWARD: But underneath the visions of space travel for the wealthy are the residents of Dona Ana County, home to New Mexico's second largest city, Las Cruces. The county has just 46 people per square mile, and in 2003, almost a quarter of its population lived below the poverty line. Now the residents will vote if they want to tax themselves in order to help the state build the spaceport in neighboring Sierra County. State Economic Development secretary, Rick Homans, says the entire project will be scrapped if the locals don't help with the bill.
Mr. RICHARD HOMANS (Secretary, New Mexico Economic Development Department): Without the tax, there's no spaceport, and we write off that whole new industry coming to southern New Mexico. It will happen pretty quickly. There won't be X Prize, there won't be rocket racing, there won't be new companies looking at the state to locate their operations here, because the spaceport is the launch pad.
WOODWARD: The spaceport and the upcoming referendum have been the talk of the town recently. Those opposed to the tax say the more than $6 million generated annually could be going to desperately needed infrastructure. The county doesn't have a paid fire department and has been decimated by floods in recent years. The state is currently contributing $115 million to the project and wants the southern New Mexico counties to throw in an additional $60 million. Community organizer and volunteer fireman Arturo Oribe(ph) doesn't like that idea.
Mr. ARTURO ORIBE(ph) (Volunteer Fireman, Dona Ana County, New Mexico): We put in enough money. If the state of New Mexico wants to put in some more money, then we'll all do it as a state.
WOODWARD: Both Rick Homans and Virgin Galactic project director, Jonathan Firth, have said they have no backup funding plans if the referendum fails. Oribe(ph) says they are bluffing.
Mr. ORIBE(ph): You don't go into an endeavor with just a plan A. I believe that they have committed so much already that we can see they will - they will scramble, but they will find another funding source.
WOODWARD: The only Dona Ana County commissioner to vote against putting the tax referendum forward was Oscar Vasquez Butler, who represents some of the poorest local residents. He says the tax is an abomination.
Mr. OSCAR VASQUEZ BUTLER (Dona Ana County Commissioner): Here we are, putting in a spaceport for an individual who's a billionaire. We're using public tax dollars to support a spaceport for private interest, and they call it economic development? No, this is corporate welfare.
WOODWARD: The residents of Dona Ana County hit the polls Tuesday to cast their votes and the nation's first-ever spaceport tax referendum. Both supporters and opponents say the outcome is too close to call.
For NPR News, I'm Evan Woodward in Las Cruces, New Mexico.