Let Them Build it Themselves
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Come April 3, the voters of this sun-baked area near the Mexican border will have an unusual question to answer: Are they happy enough as home to some hardy cotton and chile farmers, a branch of the state university and a growing population of retirees from up north? Or do they want quite literally to blast into a very different future?
In a referendum, the people of Las Cruces and surrounding Do?a Ana County will be voting on a proposal to slightly raise their county sales tax, a highly unpopular idea these days. But in return, southern New Mexico, one of the poorest regions in the nation, would jump on a fast track to hosting the world’s first all-commercial spaceport.
I love the idea of a spaceport and of private citizens going into space for any reason they want. I think it’s something we’ll see in my lifetime, hopefully sooner rather than later. That said, what’s happening in New Mexico makes little sense to me.
There’s no reason I can imagine why taxpayers should spend a single dime on this spaceport. Folks like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are spending (and collecting!) tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on spaceflight development. If they want a spaceport, let them build it themselves. There are plenty of ways to woo spaceflight to that county that don’t involve “temporary” sales tax hikes (and do you really doubt that when that tax hike has accomplished its purpose, it will go away? Really?). It’s their venture. They ought to be paying for it.
I’m not sure what a spaceport would offer in terms of payback to the taxpayers. I know that airports aren’t exactly a cash cow when it comes to public revenues, not like a sports stadium at any rate. I imagine it’s going to cost a pretty penny and the community isn’t going to see any return on their “investment” that they wouldn’t have seen anyway if they had induced the business guys to pony up the money themselves.
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Category: Our Melting Pot, The Economy and Your Money
Going to have to agree with you totally on this one. It would seem that the places that are most conducive to being space ports should even consider charging for the privilege. you can’t just set up a spaceport anywhere. doesn’t branson have billions of dollars?
I can understand taxpayers being leery about upping there taxes to pay for a Space Port in New Mexico. But lets look at the plus side to it.
More Hi-Tech firms, means better paying jobs, this helps the economy grow. New Mexico needs more hi-tech firms to move in to the State and the Economic development board have been very helpful in this respect.
I am going to relocate to Las Cruces, with it I will generate jobs in the area. Some space related.
So give it some serious thought, the future is becoming reality.
Together we can grow in New Mexico.
Trevor Murdoch.
Trevor, I wish you the best and I hope you make a ton of money!
I still can’t see why forcing taxpayers to pay for this is a good idea. You don’t need taxpayer funding to build the spaceport and you don’t need it to attract business to the area. New Mexico has a lot going for it when it comes to attracting space travel companies without raising taxes.