The Las Cruces Sun-News reports this morning that commissioners from three counties in southern New Mexico—Doña Ana, Otero, and Sierra—are planning a joint hearing on January 15 to discuss plans fox taxes needed to help fund Spaceport America. (A proposal for such a hearing was discussed last week.) The hearing is designed to make sure both county officials and residents—who will eventually have to vote to approve any taxes—are up to speed about spaceport plans and the need for the taxes. Apparently commissioners in Otero and Sierra counties, who are in the “spaceport district” but haven’t been following the issue as closely as in Doña Ana (home to Las Cruces), have some questions about the project that may be answered at the hearing.
The article also notes that spaceport proponents are hoping to get an extra $25 million from the state legislature this session. The money would be used to pay for a road to the spaceport.
In a bid to help drum up public support for the project, spaceport proponents officially launched Wednesday People for Aerospace, an advocacy group that is trying to demonstrate the economic importance of the spaceport for southern New Mexico:
Chances are good you will never ride a rocket into outer space, or visit the International Space Station, so why should you support the spaceport?
For the same reasons we support new schools, airports, roads and education – to promote jobs and economic development in Doña Ana County.
The group’s site provides some general information about the spaceport and the benefits it may offer to the community, as well as answers to some common questions (although many of those answers are little more than barebones talking points.)
“Chances are good you will never ride a rocket into outer space, or visit the International Space Station, so why should you support the spaceport?”
Well, if you build a spaceport, your chances of going to space on a rocket at least go from zero to…something. That’s better than nothing anyway.
Good for you in your development effort !
1. Just ask the opponents of your plan where they expect the funding for schools, jobs, and better housing will come, absent this significant and courageous project.
2. You might wish to consider factoring in some other 21st Century technology projects to gather a wider base of support and begin to project your area as a leader in advanced solutions to present and future problems. Some thoughts that come to mind along those lines:
a. a site for designing, building,& serving as a base for hybrid lighter-than-air craft.
b. serving future transportation needs of the area with advanced technologies, such as monorail and maglev trains — again design, build, and use industries.
c. continue to take advantage of the “dark skies” of NM, without the light pollution that infects the rest of the country, to establish yourselves as the site for a major astronomical observatory.
If I were younger by a significant age, I’d suggest to my wife moving my family out there and helping you.
Best of luck in achieving what you’re trying to do.