2014 FLORIDA LEGISLATIVE SPACE ISSUES – UPDATED 5/4/14 |
ISSUE/BILL | HOUSE STATUS | SENATE STATUS | COMMENTS |
Space Florida Ops Budget ($10 Million) | Funded at $14.5M in House/Senate conference budget | Funded at $14.5M in Senate/House conference budget | Keep Space Florida budget at same level as 2013. $4M in recurring base budget, $6M in nonrecurring funds. |
Qualified Targeted Industry (QTI) Incentive Carry-Forward | HB-1209 bill died in committee | SB-1422 bill died in committee | Allows more than one year for QTI recipients (including aerospace firms) to use tax credit allowance, or sell credits to other firms. |
Space Industry Tourism Funding ($1.5M) | Fully funded within Space Florida ops budget | Fully funded within Space Florida ops budget | Recurring budget item (from 2013) to support tourism attractions and space tourism flight business. Included in base budget. |
Space Florida Financing/Investment Fund ($7M) | Funded at $5M in House/Senate conference budget | Funded at $5M in Senate/House conference budget | $2M less than in 2013. Funding for financing deals for aerospace expansion projects. Half can be used for infrastructure projects. |
Space Transportation Infrastructure Funding ($20M) | $20M is in FDOT annual work program through 2018 | $20M is in FDOT annual work program through 2018 | Continued funding within FDOT budget for “TIP” program. $15M minimum is included in FDOT budget allocation. |
Israel Joint Aerospace Development ($1M) | Fully funded within Space Florida ops budget | Fully funded within Space Florida ops budget | Continued funding of joint aerospace projects with Space Florida and Israel. Included in Gov’s budget request. |
Shuttle Landing Facility Transition ($2.5M) | Allowed in Financing/ Investment Fund line (above) | Allowed in Financing/ Investment Fund line (above) | Funding to transition/promote SLF for new commercial and govt users. $2.5M/year for two years suggested by some legislators. |
Cecil Field Spaceport Infrastructure ($2M) | Added to Space Florida ops budget | Added to Space Florida ops budget | Funding for Cecil Field spaceport infrastructure. Added to budget in conference committee. |
Quick Response Training (QRT) Incentive ($12M) | Fully funded in House budget proposal | Fully funded in Senate budget proposal | Maintaining 2013 funding level for this workforce training incentive managed by Workforce Florida. Included in Gov’s budget request. |
STEM Workforce Training ($30M) | Did not happen | Did not happen | STEM scholarships to state colleges and vocational schools. Maybe added as proviso language to budget later in session. |
Embry-Riddle high school aerospace academies ($1M) | Funded at $3M in House/Senate conference budget | Funded at $3M in House/Senate conference budget | Recurring budget item to support/expand network of high school aerospace academies in Florida. |
Florida Tech space transportation research ($500K) | Added to Space Florida ops budget | Added to Space Florida ops budget | New funding request for research on “efficient commercial space transportation system.” A larger request was vetoed last year. |