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Ladies and gentlemen the 3rd of April is almost upon us.

What is so significant about this day you ask? If you need to ask then you’re clearly not from Southern New Mexico. That or you’ve been living under a rock. Either way you need to read this post.

On April 3rd, 2007, the fate of Southern New Mexico’s economy will be decided. Should the motion pass muster in Dona Ana county then Siera and Otero county will give it a go as well. Once one portion of the wall crumbles so to will the rest. I implore you, do not all our economy to falter anymore than it already has.

On April 3rd vote NO to the Spaceport Tax. Help keep Southern New Mexico’s economy from faltering further. They promise that more jobs will open up for the people in Southern New Mexico. They fail to inform the public that most of the positions have already been filled by Virgin Galatic and that they have selected workers from out of state. Not to mention the jobs that are “opening up” are highly skilled and a poor farming and ranching area just doesn’t have the skilled workforce that a company seeking to launch commercial sub-orbital flights needs. Oh granted a few fresh from college have a shot at a local job, but they’re not going to hire everyone straight out of college.

Our state tax has continued to rise year after year with no reprieve. What was once 6.0% is now 7.125% yet minimum wage is still sitting at $5.15 and the average employer starts their employees out at minimum wage. Despite this the cost of living continues to increase exponentially. Average rent in the city of Las Cruces, for example, for a single person in a cheap one bedroom apartment is $450 and that does not cover all utilities. Combine that with the average amount spent on gas, food, and utilities and the average person is paying anywhere from $725 to $800 a month on necessities. The majority of Las Cruces citizens are making around $5.15 to $5.25 an hour. Even working forty hour weeks at a full time job the paycheck barely covers or does not cover all of the bills.

Now they want to add on yet another tax to the people of Southern New Mexico. One which we will have to pay to Virgin Galatic for their hokey dream of commercial sub-orbital flights that seems unlikely to succeed. If the motion is not defeated VG has five years to determine whether or not their plan is going to work and during that five years New Mexicans will still be paying the Spaceport Tax. If VG decides NM isn’t to their liking they can pull out at any time during the first five years.

But we’d still be paying for it. The first attempted sub-orbital launch was a bust. What’s to say they’ll succeed and the business will boom?

You do the math. New Mexican’s cannot afford the high cost that this project demands, not with the economy as it stands, future failure or not.

Vote NO on April 3rd, 2007 [TOMORROW]!!!

Next week on Tuesday residents of Dona Ana county will be faced with a touchy subject to vote on - Spaceport America. Virgin Galatic wishes to sign a 20 year lease that would allow them to build a spaceport southwest of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The facility would be 83,000 square feet and would be situated in three counties: Dona Ana, Sierra, and Otero. The purpose of the Spaceport? To promote and eventually launch commercial sub-orbital flights.

If the company signs the agreement they will agree to pay a little over $27.5 million dollars a year to the State. Money received would go to providing better educational programs in schools across the counties. Not to mention the tourism and business that the Spaceport would bring in would help to raise the over all income of the state. We’re talking better jobs and more state funding here. So why are people against this?

“I’m not opposed to the spaceport, but I think it’s a terrible idea to tax poor people to pay for something that will be used by the rich,” said Oscar Vasquez Butler, who represents an area of the county that is home of several rural colonias with substandard water, sewage, and roads systems. “They tell us the spaceport will bring jobs to our people, but it all sounds very risky. The only thing we know for sure is that people will pay more taxes.”

All good things come with a price, this true, but can the residents of Southern New Mexico afford this price? Now that’s the question. It wasn’t too long ago that the State tax was raised across the board from 6.5% to 7.0% Not much of an increase, granted, yet the effect was so widely felt that New Mexico legislatures quickly sought to pass a counter measure to offset the imbalance. Soon after the tax increase all food, that was not precooked, became non-taxable. It helped somewhat, except that merchants decided prices should go up as well even though they certainly weren’t losing any money over this. This last January the State tax was raised yet again and sits at 7.125%.

Minimum wage in New Mexico is still $5.15 and as any other resident of Dona Ana county can tell you, unless you have a job that is high risk, specialized, or requires long/odd hours you’re going to be lucky if your starting pay is over $5.50. Even then good pay isn’t guaranteed. While I worked for SCI as a security guard my starting pay, and the pay that I and most guards stayed at, was a paltry $5.20 an hour. Indeed while I worked graveyard shifts at various stop and robs I felt lucky that my starting pay was over $6 at both jobs. Right now I’m earning more than the starting pay for a manager at Pan Am Special Events and that is only $6.74. New Mexico State University Athletics only pays me, an equipment manager, $5.75, though I am to get a pay raise again next semester.

As for the cost of living, well let’s just say that for the prices people pay to rent an apartment or home in this state the quality is decidedly less than what those from other states, or even Northern New Mexico for that matter, would expect to pay.

Now they want to add on an extra tax for the people to pay. Granted it might, in the long run, go towards improving the mathematical and science curriculum taught in public schools, and we all know the schools in this state could use that help, but it could also blow up in everyone’s faces as well. We’ve already seen one sub-orbital launch here in New Mexico and it certainly wasn’t anything to write home about. What is to say that this won’t be yet another flop? Virgin Galatic has not even finished their program and begun testing it, they have no idea whether this will be a success either.

I would certainly love to see New Mexico’s economy bolstered, and I applaud the efforts of Gov. Bill Richardson and others in attempting to secure this opportunity for New Mexico. I do believe, however, that NM is trying to put the cart before the horse so to speak. The majority of Dona Ana county residents are in the poor and low income brackets and adding on yet another tax to an overly taxed and poorly paid population does not equate a healthy fix to a poor economy.

Sierra and Ontero counties are holding off to see what the outcome to the April 3 vote will be. I will be certain to arrive at my polling place bright and early to cast my vote. A resounding NO. As I said, I would love to see our economy bolstered but I believe that this is neither the time nor the method with which to do it. Minimum wage continues to remain the same yet the cost of living continuously increases, at absurd increments, along with the taxes. Adding on yet another will not gain us anything. Especially since this program is more like to blow up in everyone’s faces rather than being a success.

“New Mexico has an opportunity to be on the ground floor when a major industry of the future is born,” Rick Homans, the state’s economic development director, told The Washington Post. “Bill Gates first tried to start his software company in Albuquerque, but he couldn’t find local backers. When it comes to space, that won’t happen again.”

There is a big difference to funding a single up and coming company and funding and supporting a million dollar project that will tax the residents.

Now I know not everyone here is from New Mexico, but if you were from Southern New Mexico would you vote yes or no to this on April 3rd?