Last year Dona Ana County in New Mexico voted for an increased tax to help build a new spaceport in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico. Now it's time for Sierra County, including the town of Truth or Consequences, to take a vote. The county will vote on a 0.25% sales tax to help fund the construction of the spaceport. If the tax passes in Sierra County, then the government can legally begin collecting the spaceport tax. Apparently New Mexico tax districts are multi-county groupings. The new tax proposal has generated some news coverage by promoting contention between people who want the spaceport and people who don't want to pay the tax. A pretty common protagonist-antagonist match-up in the papers.

URS Corp. won the design competition for Spaceport America in New Mexico's Mojave desert. Their design "is a low-lying, striking bit of construction that uses natural earth as a berm, and relies on passive energy for heating and cooling, with photovoltaic panels for electricity and water recycling capabilities. A rolling concrete shell acts as a roof with massive windows opening to a view of the runway and spacecraft."

When the Spaceport is completed it will be a roughly 100,000-square-foot (9,290-square-meter) facility. The picture presents a deceptively small view of the facility, because most of the construction will be underground. The construction will cost approximately $31 million US dollars.

Unofficially, the voters of Dona Ana county passed a tax measure that will help fund the construction of a private space port near Upham, NM. The vote totals are not official because not all the provisional ballots have been counted. However there are only 108 provisional ballots, and the measure is leading by more than 250 votes.

There has been a lot of press about this 'Spaceport America' thing recently. Just yesterday there was an article on MSNBC about the plan. A great quote from the article Carol Garcia, 52, of Las Cruces, said: “It’s just a rich man’s dream that he needs us to help pay for. If it’s your dream, build it yourself.” While I am glad that the plan is moving forward, these folks in a very poor county of one of America's poorest states shouldn't have to pay for it.

New Mexico voters are in the voting show down over taxes to support the local spaceport, dubbed 'Spaceport America' since Richard Branson came and signed a document stating that Virgin Galactic would probably use the spaceport once it's built. At the moment results show 51.5% of the voters in favor of the new tax to support the spaceport. It looks like the PR blitz may have worked. The name is a nice touch.

Here is another article about 'Spaceport America', the spaceport slated for development in New Mexico. This article precedes the signing of the letter of agreement by Richard Branson. This article speaks almost exclusively to the unwillingness of the local New Mexican county, Dona Ana, to sign into law a tax increase for the project. I'm starting to see a particularly interesting public relations campaign by Virgin Galactic.

Richard Branson has signed an agreement to use the, as yet undeveloped, Spaceport America in New Mexico. Virgin Galactic will pay $27.5 million over 20 years to use the spaceport as the base of it's operations for space tourism. The facility is expected to be completed in 2009 at a cost of around $198 million. The referendum signed by Branson is not a legally binding contract - more than likely because as yet, the people of certain New Mexico counties have not agreed to raise their own taxes in order to pay for the spaceport.