From
Capitol Report New Mexico -Concerns that
Spaceport America will
end up being a $209 million white elephant for New Mexico taxpayers may
have been greatly put to rest on Tuesday (Jan. 22) when legislators
announced that an agreement had been reportedly reached between
Virgin Galactic and the state’s trial lawyers.
Virgin Galactic, the anchor tenant at the Spaceport,
has made veiled threats of pulling up stakes if
the New Mexico Legislature does not pass liability safeguards for the
company as well as manufacturers in the suborbital launches scheduled to
take place at the facility located outside Truth or Consequences.
But on Tuesday afternoon, assembled Democrats from both chambers of
the Legislature announced that compromise had been reached that the
New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association – which spearheaded efforts against previous attempts at liability exemptions — could live with.
“It was difficult,” Senate Majority Leader
Michael Sanchez (D-Belen),
a trial lawyer himself, said. “There was nothing easy about” the
negotiations that had been going on between the two sides since last
summer “but it worked out for the best interests of New Mexico.”
Democrats said Senate Pro Tem
Mary Kay Papen (D-Las Cruces) would introduce the compromise bill in the Senate and Republican state Rep.
Jim White of
Albuquerque would introduce the House version of the bill that was
described on Tuesday as a measure that would align New Mexico with
liability agreements in place in Florida and Colorado.
The bill’s particulars are expected to come out Wednesday morning but
are reported to contain $1 million in liability limits should an
accident take place and extend the act through 2021.
“I think this should go through the Legislature pretty smoothly,” Sen. Sanchez said.
Gov.
Susana Martinez has
been calling for lawmakers to pass a limited liability bill as a way to
protect the $209 million tab that taxpayers have already sunk into the
project that has been billed asa boost to the state’s economy in general
and southern New Mexico in particular.
Read more
Spaceport compromise reportedly reached in NM Legislature
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The chief justice of the New Mexico
Supreme Court says the state's court system needs more judges to deal with a
backlog of cases. 
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