NM Spaceport Gets National Attention in Washington Post

“If you build it, they will come.” This line from the movie Field of Dreams has been used to justify taxpayer-financed construction of professional sports stadiums for years. Now, as the Washington Post discussed on its pages this Sunday, Governor Richardson and a number of leading New Mexicans and civic boosters in and around Las Cruces have been pushing a taxpayer-financed spaceport in order to allow billionaires like Richard Branson start commercial space flights.
While it is being sold as an economic development tool, the plan requires a significant and economically-harmful hike in the gross receipts tax. With more than three-dozen of these spaceports either complete or under construction, New Mexicans need to understand just how speculative this type of “economic development” really is.