The Doña Ana, Otero and Sierra county commissions will hold a joint session in
The meeting will be held Jan. 15 at 10 a.m. in the commission chambers at the
New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans will give a presentation on the project to members of the commissions at the meeting. Officials from the X Prize will also be on hand to answer questions.
The meeting is designed to be a forum where views on the controversial project can be openly expressed. The three commissions involved will all be deciding in the coming months whether to hold elections on the possibility of increasing the gross receipts tax to help fund the spaceport.
Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley, a strong supporter of the project, said because the spaceport is such a new concept, it’s important to discuss it publicly.
“Some questions we’re going to be able to answer and some questions we’re not going to be able to answer, but it’s important that everyone knows exactly where we are,” he said.
McCamley also said the forum will be an opportunity for the three counties to gauge the others’ commitment to the project.
“This has to be a regional effort to succeed,” he said.
The meeting was thought up by incoming Doña Ana County Commission Chairwoman Karen Perez, who has reservations about the spaceport project and wanted a discussion to try to foster communication before the counties approve tax increase elections.
“I won’t get in the way of voters, but I think all three counties need to get together and discuss whether this is a crapshoot they want to take,” Perez told me last month.