http://youtu.be/SJXHxnRTX74
State Senator Lee Cotter is hoping to provide more oversight for the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, and a local government agency is hoping to support him.
Dona Ana and Sierra Counties both approved a GRT tax increase to help pay for the construction bonds purchased by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. After the bond payments are made each year, money is left over and the Spaceport Authority has been using it to help fund their operation costs.
Many have questioned this, and Senator Lee Cotter’s bill hopes to prevent them from using the funds for operations. Christine Anderson, Executive Director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, says that what they are doing is common.
“Normally the project for which you bond, you know you want it to succeed,” Anderson said. “So, Normally, that money flows to the project. So, they called us and said would you like it, this is NMFA back in 2011, and we said yes we would, what do we have to do. And we had to go through three different boards.”
Senator Cotter said that from the way the GRT Increase was written this is legal, but it is not what many people thought they were voting for.
“Yes, I do believe based on my research that the Spaceport Authority is following the law,” Cotter said. “Because they have gotten approval from the official Spaceport oversight authority, and the spaceport actual authority, but what they are not doing is their not following the spirit that was given to the voters.”
The second part of his bill would prevent the Spaceport Authority from seeking private loans without the approval of the Legislature and the voters.
“I was surprised when I read it that they can borrow infinitely,” Cotter said. “In fact when they get through paying it off in 20 or so years they can borrow it again.”
Cotter said that most State agencies must get approval from the Legislature before seeking a loan, but Christine Anderson says that they are allowed to seek a loan based solely on their own revenues as long as they get approval from the state board of finance.
“This bill basically says you can never ever seek a private loan using your own revenue,” Anderson said. “And that’s rather crippling you know, if you think of a small company that sometimes they would like to get a loan, and their revenue is up and up and they can do that. And I hate to think in 10 years time, or whatever it is and the Spaceport wanted to get a private loan they were precluded from doing that. And this bill again does that, and I find that rather crippling from a long term perspective.”
The Dona Ana County Commission passed a resolution in Support of Senator Cotter’s bill; Commissioner Billy Garret says that they do not want to see the excess revenues be used toward their operation costs.
“Anything that’s in excess of the amount used to pay off the bonds that’s been used by the Spaceport for their operations,” Garret said. “We’re basically saying, No, we don’t want that to happen. What we would like to do is have that be used to help offset the remaining infrastructure costs.”
The Dona Ana County Commission also requested that the funds be used toward funding the Southern Road, but Executive Director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority Christine Anderson says that 14.5 million dollars have already been set aside to fund the project.
“We are holding that money,” Anderson said. “Dona Ana County is the design engineer on the road, right now the BLM is reviewing the environment assessment impact statements, and I believe Dona Ana County is planning to release that RFP next summer. When they do, we will fund every invoice that is sent to us for that road to the tune of $14.5 million.”
This is the second year that Senator Cotter has introduced this bill. Last year the bill failed. He says that whether or not the bill passes could depend on how much money is in the budget for the Spaceport.
