Eclipse failure would ripple outward

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Without life-saving financing jet maker Eclipses Aviation stands to lose not only its business and workers but to drag the metro area into a deeper recession, according to a university economist.

Instead of paychecks Thursday, employees leaving the plant that makes the small Eclipse 500 jet aircraft carried only a slip of paper

with a toll free number that yielded this recorded message:  "Thank you for calling the Eclipse employee information line.  We will have further communications later today regarding the current situation.  Please try back later today."

By evening the recording was updated

"Greetings Eclipsers," the message began. "While the company has made significant progress today in obtaining interim financing, we are not yet ready to announce a solution that would allow us a targeted date to process our payroll."

Despite the optimistic tone of the message Dr. Lawrence Waldman of the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research is skeptical.

"They don't have any money that they can access," Waldman said earlier Thursday. "Their bank accounts are frozen; their credit cards are frozen; they can't get any more outside investment money

"I mean they're just broke."

Other than the recordings the company is not saying anything.  And even if money to cover the paychecks is found, financing to keep the company going forward is still an issue.

Should the company go under and all those employees get pink slips, Waldman said Albuquerque's economy, which was already in a mild recession, could slip into a deeper swoon potentially lasting 18 months or more:

"So 1,300 hundred jobs plus another thousand jobs due to the jobs that will be lost when the employees or former employees stop spending their money," Waldman said.  "The merchants are going to suffer, and they're going to have to lay off."

Waldman said the city has already seen its gross receipts taxes slip because of the weaker economy and reduced consumer spending.  Lost jobs will only hurt that more forcing the city to tighten up services.

The city and the state have put about $20 million into Eclipse, and the company also owes the city about $200,000 in back rent for its facilities at the Sunport.