{"id":1376,"date":"2007-03-09T13:43:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-09T19:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/spaceport-tax-ramifications-cannot-be-overstated\/"},"modified":"2007-03-09T13:43:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-09T19:43:00","slug":"spaceport-tax-ramifications-cannot-be-overstated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/spaceport-tax-ramifications-cannot-be-overstated\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaceport tax ramifications cannot be overstated"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is widespread agreement that <\/span>Spaceport America<\/a> should be built; what is contentious is the proposal to raise the gross receipts tax in three counties to help fund it.<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This is the first in a series of guest columns I will run before the April 3 election on whether to raise the gross receipts tax in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> to help fund the spaceport. I will run one in support of the tax increase, followed by one in opposition, back and forth, and plan to publish a roughly equal number on each side.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Public officials and other readers are invited to participate in this debate. To submit a guest column for publication, e-mail me at hea<\/a>th@haussamen.com<\/a>. Baseless personal attacks will not be published. I want to focus on the issues.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

By Kent Evans<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On April 3, the voters of Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename> will make a decision about whether to invest in Spaceport America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> with public funds, and the ramifications of this decision cannot be overstated. To see what the future holds, look back 60 years.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In 1947, the notion of space travel was dismissed by most people as a flight of fancy, an expensive pipe dream unworthy of public investment. Even so, the U.S.<\/st1:country-region> government established a remote and isolated facility to test the emerging technology, and they named it White<\/st1:placename> Sands<\/st1:placename> Missile<\/st1:placename> Range<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>. Six decades later, WSMR is a crown jewel in the nation\u2019s space and defense programs. Conservative estimates show that its continued operation pumps about $1.2 million a day \u2013 $438 million annually \u2013 into the local economy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In 2007, Spaceport America<\/st1:country-region> offers Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> a similar promise to that which was contemplated in 1947, and the skeptics of today offer eerily similar criticism of its prospects for success. History shows they are wrong.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

With 44 years of experience in the aerospace industry, I feel uniquely qualified to endorse the wise investment of public funds for infrastructure development at Spaceport America<\/st1:country-region> north of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. I saw similar investment in southern Florida<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> at the dawn of the Apollo program, and we all know the epic return on that investment.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When WSMR was established, I was a six-year-old boy with bright dreams about what the future might hold. For every six-year-old living in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> today, I urge you to vote \u201cyes\u201d on April 3. Spaceport America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> will be a fundamental part of that child\u2019s future. You can count on it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Evans<\/a> is the Do\u00f1a Ana County District 4 commissioner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is widespread agreement that Spaceport America should be built; what is contentious is the proposal to raise the gross receipts tax in three counties to help fund it. This is the first in a series of guest columns I will run before the April 3 election on whether to raise the gross receipts tax […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}