Dona Ana County Wants Spaceport Visitor Center In Hatch

LAS CRUCES, NM – Dona Ana County officials want the New Mexico Spaceport Authority to place the spaceport’s first visitor center in Hatch instead of Truth or Consequences, which is in Sierra County.

Dona Ana officials believe the county deserves to be the location of the visitor center because it has taken the initiative in matters regarding funding for the spaceport. The county was the first to set up elections to let voters approve a spaceport tax district, which ended up being approved last April.

Tuesday, Dona Ana County Commissioners passed a resolution urging the spaceport authority to reverse its decision to base the visitor center in Sierra County.

“Many people here believe we are imposing a tax on ourselves without any security in terms of its return. It was actually a risk,” said Dona Ana County Commissioner Oscar Vasquez-Butler.

Last week, county officials decided to hold off on the official authorization of the spaceport taxing district until Otero and Sierra Counties, the two other counties involved in the project, set forth their own spaceport tax referendums.

“It’s in everybody’s best interest to see that this succeeds. If its going to be a regional program, it’s success will hinge on the participation of Otero and Sierra counties,” said Dona Ana County Spokesman Jess Williams at the time.

Williams went on to add that Sierra County should not be rewarded if it was “so far behind” in terms of setting up a spaceport taxing district. “The other counties have yet to schedule the vote. We believe that if this is going to be a regional venture, then they need to step up and schedule that process,” he said.

Last week, Jim Coslin, the chair of the Sierra County Commission, toldABC-7 he believed his county had a larger time frame to work with. “We did not realize that it is necessary to form the spaceport regional taxing district in order to move forward and be able to spend money that would be appropriated by the gross tax receipt,” he said. Sierra County officials have expect to have an election in which voters will decide the fate of a spaceport taxing district,Coslin added.

A large portion of the funding for the $198-million dollar project will come from Dona Ana County, officials said – stating their county should be the first to reap the benefits of the visitor’s center.

Hatch Mayor Judd Nordyke tells ABC-7 the visitor’s center would create more jobs for his community and bring in businesses and revenue. The village has already spent taxpayer money making plans and preparing for the visitor’s center, he added.

“We were hoping that the visitor’s center … would be an anchor facility to help develop the village economically beyond the traditional agriculture,” said Nordyke.

Along withtheresolution, Dona Ana County Commissioners wrote a letter to Governor Bill Richardson urging his support on the issue.

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Written and reported for broadcast by Doug Wernet

Written for the web by Joe Villasana