More bad choices from elected officials have costed taxpayers millions and it’s very confusing!
For over a year now, New Mexico taxpayers have been told that investing over $225 million in ‘Spaceport America’ to keep Virgin Galactic happy and stay in business with New Mexico will pay off in a big way. Doing business with Virgin Galactic could’ve created jobs, commerce, and economic growth, but it no longer is going in that direction. The idea was that the collective amount would help improve the state through their tax dollars and support, but now there isn’t a return on investment (ROI) in this deal.
The New Mexico Business Coalition doesn’t oppose tax funded incentives, but we will consistently oppose deals that don’t protect tax dollars and insure there is in fact a good ROI. Not only has the promised ROI not happened, but now Richard Branson and his company have chosen Arizona to invest our millions and build a manufacturing plant in that other state. At the plant, they will be building their newer aircrafts that may fly out of the New Mexico Spaceport! This, in a way, sounds like it could be an overall win for New Mexico, but the real question is why not have the manufacturing plant and all the jobs be located in here? What did New Mexico taxpayers even pay for?
In the end, this deal no longer helps the state, it disables it’s ability to continue attracting larger manufacturers, and confuses people on many other subject involving our leadership and economic stability. Virgin Galactic and the leadership involved in this decision, care about making and spending money, just not the people that their decisions affect. To read more context on this issue, you can click or tap this link HERE.