The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to allow the Pima County Attorney to send an official response to the Goldwater Institute regarding World View Enterprises on the behalf of the Board of Supervisors. In that letter, the Goldwater Institute, asserted that Pima County’s deal with World View violates Arizona’s Gift Clause and the County’s selection of Swaim Associates and Barker-Morrissey Contracting for design and construction services violated Pima County’s own procurement code.
The Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to allow for the response and in an uncharacteristic fashion, the County Attorney whipped out a response the very same day. The rapid response startled many residents who struggle with the normal delays associated with most County functions.
According to the letter: “The Goldwater Institute also alleges that the County violated Title 34 bidding requirements, and the County’s own procurement code, when it awarded contracts for the design and construction of the County Facility on an emergency basis.”
The County Attorney argues that “neither allegation has legal merit” because the justification for the emergency procurement, as set forth in Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry’s January 19 Memorandum to the Board, “explains that Pima County had, for some months, been competing with several other locations within the United States for the siting of World View’s expanded operations.”
However, in 2014, the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) announced the six winning companies in its Spring 2014 Arizona Innovation Challenge (AIC). These grant recipients, including Word View, could be located outside of Arizona, but they had to “plan to relocate or build a significant portion of its operations to Arizona as well as commercialize their products/services in Arizona within the 12-month award period.”
Additionally, for all companies, the awarded funds were required to be spent to the benefit of increasing jobs, revenue and capital spending in Arizona.
At the time, winners could not “have more than $10,000,000 in net assets, which does not include capital from investors,” and applicants ‘must demonstrate that the products or services being considered for AIC grant funding will begin generating revenue for the company within 12 months after the company begins receiving funding, if the company is selected as a winner.”
In its announcement, the Arizona Commerce Authority noted:
World View Enterprises is the developer of high-altitude balloon technology that will provide trips to near space for tourism, research, and industry uses. A sealed capsule carries 8 people to 100,000 feet to see the Earth from the edge of space or to perform research. The unmanned balloons can carry payloads for communications, surveillance, research, and launching microsatellites.
“The AIC is a bi-annual business plan competition that awards qualified, innovative start-ups and early stage companies, up to $250,000 in grant funding capital to grow their businesses – ultimately advancing innovation and technology commercialization opportunities in Arizona, according to the announcement. “Spring 2014 winners were selected from a pool of 135 applicants.”
2014 Arizona Commerce Authority Innovation Challenge
| Company | Location | Subsidy Value | Type of Subsidy | # of Jobs or Training Slots | Investment Data | Source of Data |
| EndoVantage, LLC | Arizona | $250,000 | grant/low-cost loan | 4** | $24,995 | View Here |
| Marlytics, LLC (dba Lawlytics) | Arizona | $250,000 | grant/low-cost loan | 3** | $0 | View Here |
| Picmonic Inc. | Arizona | $250,000 | grant/low-cost loan | 4** | $7,000 | View Here |
| Triton Microtechnologies, Inc. | Arizona | $250,000 | grant/low-cost loan | 2** | $40,670 | View Here |
| World View Enterprises Inc. | Arizona | $250,000 | grant/low-cost loan | 4** | $830,000 | View Here |
**Year is fiscal year. Jobs figure is number company committed to create.
According to an article in Parabolic Arc:
“In a memorandum to supervisors, County Administrator C.H. Huckelberry said that Spaceport America and Enterprise Florida both made attractive offers to lure World View away from Tucson. The Spaceport America proposal would have located the headquarters and manufacturing facility in Las Cruces, NM.
“Both locations had existing space ports with little need by the company or the jurisdiction to build additional resources or infrastructure,” Huckelberry wrote.
To compete, county officials put together a deal with the City of Tucson, Arizona Commerce Authority and Sun Corridor, Inc.
Related article:Pima County Taxpayers To Pony-Up For Code Name “Curvature”
In New Mexico, politicians are questioning an investment in “Spaceport America, where Virgin is an anchor tenant, and to even call for the $200 million facility to be put up for sale,” according to Gigmag.com.
“One of the poorest states [referring to New Mexico] in the nation has invested nearly a quarter of a billion dollars and 10 years in creating a hub for Richard Branson’s space tourism company, Virgin Galactic. Some see it as the crown jewel of a new space age while others call it a carnival for the 1 percent — but with persistent delays and mounting financial strain, Spaceport America is just trying to avoid becoming New Mexico’s costliest, most futuristic ghost town,” reported Buzzfeed in March 2014.
New Mexico State Senator George Muñoz, the sponsor of a bill to put the commercial spaceport up for sale, said he didn’t “know who the potential buyers would be, but whatever proceeds we receive could be used to paying down the debt New Mexico committed to when we built the place. There was a lot of hoopla before that if ‘We build it, they will come,’ but it’s been several years now and nobody’s shown up yet. New Mexican taxpayers are continuing to foot the bill for a $250 million empty facility.”
Because of the stated requirements for participation in the 2014 Arizona Commerce Authority Innovation Challenge, it is unclear what World View’s relocation options were.