Florida Legislators Eye Tax Free Launches, State Subsidy for New Launch Complex
Faced with increased competition from Texas, Georgia and other states, Florida legislators are eyeing new ways to keep companies launching from the Sunshine State. Florida Politics reports:
Zero G Zero Fee’ bills would create tax exemptions for anything launched into space from Florida.
What if a company could launch a rocket into space from Florida and pay no sales tax on the rocket, its payload, its fuel or even the concrete, steel and equipment needed to create the launch pad?
That would be the reality if lawmakers this Session approve legislation from Sen. Tom Wright and Rep. Tyler Sirois (SB 1466, HB 65)…
At the same time, Republican Rep. Rene Plasencia of Orlando has introduced HB 9233, which would provide a $10 million appropriation for Florida to build a new multiuser launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Space Florida, the state’s space business development agency, has talked about the need for a launch pad that could be leased on a per-launch basis by companies that don’t have their own launch facilities, as SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and others do.
Florida had the busiest orbital launch range in the world last year, with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station hosting a total of 31 launches in 2021. However, the state faces increased competition from spaceports in other states.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is seeking approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch the Super Heavy/Starship rocket from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas. The company is also eying launches of the booster from converted oil rigs located in the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX is also planning to construct a Super Heavy/Starship launch complex near Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The company launches Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy from Pad 39A. The company also is seeking approvals to build an additional launch complex on the NASA base to facilitate Super Heavy/Starship launches.
The FAA recently approved Spaceport Camden, a Georgia launch facility that will handle small-satellite boosters. It is not yet clear which booster(s) will launch from the facility.
Florida also completes with other spaceports in other states, most of which saw increases in launches last year. These include: Vandenberg Space Force Base in California; Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia; Mojave Air and Space Port in California; and the Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska on Kodiak Island.
15 responses to “Florida Legislators Eye Tax Free Launches, State Subsidy for New Launch Complex”
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new gingrich failed economics
Oh yeah, the U.S. economy was terrible from 1994 to 1998. Not at all like the swell times we’re having now.
thanks to Clinton we had the budget balanced, no real wars, no massive military spending and the economy was booming quite well. then more tax cuts, war, and endless deficit spending
A Republican president has not balanced a budget since the early 70’s. and neither did Newt the liar
Newt was an integral part of turning the GOP into an organization that can’t fight a virus.
Newt was the pivot point in the GOP turning not only into an incompetent party in terms of talent but in terms of ideology. he had none except “serve Mr. Newt”. if you want to read a pretty good analysis of him in that era “Dead right” is still quite apo today
David Frum is pretty much the archetype of an establishmentarian, lapdog “Republican” who thinks the proper job of the party is to be decorous and not make a fuss as the Democrats destroy the country. He was Never Trump long before there was a Trump.
lol Frum figured it out with Newt. the party under Newt and trump was to do nothing but funnel money to corporations, themselves and throw mud
newt talks a big game, much like trump but in the end, he could spend money with all the rest and lie far better. Frum just has values. Newt none
Frum’s main “value” is to “view with alarm” anything that upsets the Democrats. He’s never really been a Republican, but he plays one on left-wing TV.
Frum and I both left the GOP for the same reason. they lying was just to much
LOL. The Democrats haven’t been able to do anything much about the virus except ration the drugs developed under Trump along racial lines. The collateral damage from their panicky and pointless forays into “doing something” has been far more dire than the actual pandemic.
Yes the vaccine was developed under the guidance of the Trump administration but his base is intent on not using it for anything but a political foil. The Dems take real action that has real effect, the only reason we’re going thru this is the base of your party who are intent on doing nothing about it.
Trump was pretty much single-handedly responsible for stiff-arming the bureaucracies out of the way so we could have three vaccines in less than a year. Biden has been occupying Trump’s old office for nearly a full year now. How many additional vaccines or other medications have emerged on his watch?
Meanwhile, after initially pooh-poohing everything Trump did to actually fight Covid, Democrats turned into panicky fer-mongering Chicken Littles on a dime and promptly set about destroying entire state economies and herding Covid patients into nursing homes with Auschwitz-like results. That was “real action” with “real effect” alright, but not ones I would think you’d like to brag about.
Hahahhahha, oh man RRD again. You guys are pretty much the only source of public misinformation. Let’s count a few shall we. Alex Jones, Joe Rogan, Gov Desantis, Gov Abbott, Herman Cain, Marcus Lamb, Bob Enyart, Marc Bernier, Dick Ferrel, Todd Tucker, Jimmy DeYoung, Caleb Wallace. And there’s more GOP anti-vax misinformers who killed themselves and inspired thousands of others. You invoke The Gov of of NY for his malfunction, yet look what happened to him … and his brother. But your gononors who inspired others to run to the hospital to die for not getting their vaccination are sill in office and inspiring their base to do nothing about the virus. Cuomo’s daily Covid briefings were real leadership and an attempt at doing what was known best then. All the GOP does is pretend it’s not a problem.
The balanced budgets were due to Republican control of the Congress after the first two years of Clintonian nonsense resulted in the wave election of 1994. The economy was in the midst of the Dot Com Boom. Clinton was busily ignoring Islamist provocations everywhere in the world except for the occasional cruise missile strike on pointless targets to distract the public from the Lewinsky Affair. Bush had the bad luck to be elected just as the various Clinton-raised chickens were about to come home to roost.
I thought KSC already has a multiuser pad ready to go (LC-48) but couldn’t find any users?