{"id":1398,"date":"2007-03-13T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-13T18:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/commission-puts-safeguards-on-spaceport-tax\/"},"modified":"2007-03-13T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-13T18:02:00","slug":"commission-puts-safeguards-on-spaceport-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/commission-puts-safeguards-on-spaceport-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"Commission puts safeguards on spaceport tax"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/Rfbnge6EkpI\/AAAAAAAABhI\/OdJY-00sTTo\/s1600-h\/Spaceport+america.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/Rfbnge6EkpI\/AAAAAAAABhI\/OdJY-00sTTo\/s200\/Spaceport+america.gif\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041471378126312082\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donaanacounty.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Do\u00f1a Ana County<\/a> Board of Commissioners approved today a resolution that would put safeguards on tax money that would help fund <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spaceportamerica.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Spaceport America<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">On a vote of 4-1, with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donaanacounty.org\/commissioners\/district1\/\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar Vasquez Butler<\/a> dissenting, the commission approved the resolution and an amendment stating the county\u2019s intent to use 25 percent of the tax money for educational purposes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">State law allows the county to keep as much as 25 percent of the tax money for spaceport-related activities. Commissioner <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donaanacounty.org\/commissioners\/district5\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bill McCamley<\/a> has proposed using the money to fund programs in engineering and business that will focus on the aerospace industry at high schools in all three county school districts. The language in the resolution isn\u2019t that specific, but does state that the county intends to use it for education.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.haussamen.com\/SpaceportTaxConditions.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">The resolution<\/a> puts some protection on public money that would be spent if voters approve a 1\/4 percent gross receipts tax increase on April 3 to help fund the spaceport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The resolution declares the intent of the county to rescind the tax if certain conditions aren\u2019t met by Dec. 31, 2008: that the state obtains a Federal Aviation Administration license and the acceptance of the accompanying environmental impact statement, that Virgin Galactic signs a lease to use the facility, and that the cost of the Virgin Galactic facility does not exceed $225 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The wording is even stronger than that of conditions the Legislature placed in 2006 on more than $100 million it appropriated for the spaceport. The state\u2019s conditions specify that an \u201canchor tenant,\u201d not necessary Virgin Galactic, must sign a lease, and that that a true estimate of the cost, not the actual cost, cannot exceed $225 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Should the conditions not be met, the county will have already collected a little more than $6 million from the tax. The resolution declares the county\u2019s intent to seek legislation, if that happens, allowing the money already collected to be spent on other expenses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In addition, the bonds the tax would repay won\u2019t be sold until the conditions are met, New Mexico Economic Development Department Secretary Rick Homans said, so the county won\u2019t be stuck with the debt if it rescinds the tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners approved today a resolution that would put safeguards on tax money that would help fund Spaceport America. On a vote of 4-1, with Oscar Vasquez Butler dissenting, the commission approved the resolution and an amendment stating the county\u2019s intent to use 25 percent of the tax money for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398","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=1398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}