CAPE CANAVERAL — Space Florida is putting on a happy face about the spending plan proposed by tea party darling Gov. Rick Scott (R), who wants to cut funding by almost two-thirds for the state agency that aims to develop Florida’s aerospace and related businesses.
Agency spokeswoman Tina Lange points out that Space Florida’s operations budget remains the same — $3.8 million — under the budget unveiled this week by the state’s new boss. Scott, a former health-care industry executive who has pledged to create 700,000 jobs in Florida in seven years, unveiled his $66 billion spending plan for the year beginning July 1, 2011, that features corporate and property tax cuts and a $4.6 billion reduction in state government spending.
Space Florida has less to say about the governor’s budget for its business development programs, money the agency uses to leverage private capital investment. Scott’s budget requests $10 million — a cut of $21 million from the agency’s $31 million 2010 budget, although Lange said it is possible more money would be added in later as individual initiatives come to fruition.
The agency, for example, is pursuing several partnerships to take over facilities at Kennedy Space Center that will become available after the shuttle program ends later this year (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 25). “Our operations budget remains the same and that’s important to us. That keeps us going. The rest of it, we’ll see how it plays out,” Lange says.
Former U.S. Rep. Robert Walker (R-Pa.), a member of the newly created Competitive Space Task Force, cautioned that if Florida does not capitalize on its resources, there are plenty of other states positioning themselves to provide infrastructure for commercial space ventures.
“You have a huge asset in the Kennedy Space Center,” Walker says. “If you don’t get into the game in a major way, other people are perfectly willing to invest and make this a viable industry going forward.”
Space Florida already holds leases from the Air Force for use of Launch Complexes 36 and 46 for commercial operators. Potential clients include Masten Space Systems, which is expected to launch a suborbital rocket within three months from Complex 36, and Lockheed Martin, which is partnered with ATK on the Athena booster that would fly from Complex 46.
No comments:
Post a Comment