Counties assert control over spaceport-tax board

Officials from Doña Ana and Sierra counties are asserting their authority to control a board that oversees tax money from their counties set aside for the construction of Spaceport America.

Under the proposal, each county will appoint two members to the board that oversees the funneling of gross-receipts-tax money to the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News. Both counties have approved a 1/4 percent increase in the gross-receipts tax to help fund the spaceport.

The proposal has been approved by Sierra County commissioners and will be voted on by commissioners in Doña Ana County on July 22. The agreement needs only the approval of Doña Ana County to become official.

It isn’t what the state wanted. The Spaceport Authority originally proposed that the state have majority control of the board. That isn’t allowed by state law, so the Spaceport Authority came up with a second proposal that would have allowed the state to appoint two of four members of the taxing-district board. That proposal would have allowed each county to appoint one member.

But the counties are allowed to move forward without the state. Doña Ana County Manager Brian Haines told the Sun-News he felt pressure from the state to approve its proposal, but he and Sierra County officials weren’t comfortable with it. Doña Ana County Commissioner Oscar Vásquez Butler told the Sun-News that the local tax money should be controlled by locals.

Under the counties’ proposal, the state can gain two members on the board — bringing total membership to six — at a later date if that change is approved by the existing members of the tax-district board and the governor.

Steve Landeene, the Spaceport Authority’s director, said that’s fine.

“It’s just equal weighting, which seems to be a very fair way of going about structuring a membership,” the Sun-News quoted him as saying.

If other local governments raise taxes to help fund the spaceport, they can also join the board. Voters in Otero County will decide later this year whether to do that.

The Doña Ana County tax increase is expected to provide $49 million toward the almost $200 million initial cost to build the spaceport. Sierra County’s tax increase is expected to generate $2.3 million.

Spaceport starting to take shape

There’s lots of other news on the spaceport. The state is currently accepting bids on the contract to improve the road that will serve as the Sierra County entrance to the spaceport. They’re also conducting a study to determine the best route for a road from Interstate 25 in Doña Ana County to the spaceport.

Last week, the governor appointed a new chairwoman of the Spaceport Authority — Daniela Glick, a Las Cruces native who is the deputy secretary of the state’s Economic Development Department.

The spaceport has a new Web site, which can be found online at spaceportamerica.com.

And, perhaps most important, the draft environmental-impact statement for the spaceport has been released. You can read it by clicking here. The Federal Aviation Administration is holding public hearings on the draft on Aug. 5 in Alamogordo, Aug. 6 in Truth or Consequences and Aug. 7 in Las Cruces.

The final environmental-impact statement is the last necessary step for the state to obtain a commercial spaceport license from the FAA.

The Sun-News touted the recent developments related to the spaceport today in an editorial:

“A lot of people have shed a lot of blood, sweat, tears and money planting the seeds of Spaceport America,” the editorial states. “If you squint real hard, you can now see something starting to emerge from the ground.”