Florida Senate - 2024                                     SM 370
       
       
        
       By Senator Wright
       
       
       
       
       
       8-00539-24                                             2024370__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to add spaceports as a qualified tax
    4         exempt category of private activity bonds.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, commercial investment in space and space
    7  transportation is driving the requirements for spaceport sites,
    8  operating environments, and infrastructure, and
    9         WHEREAS, this state has acted decisively to integrate space
   10  transportation into the fabric of its statewide strategic
   11  intermodal system, and
   12         WHEREAS, in 1999, state leaders made a landmark decision to
   13  designate space as an official mode of transportation and
   14  spaceports as the associated transportation facilities, which
   15  gave space standing within the Department of Transportation
   16  similar to that of other long-established modes of
   17  transportation, such as airports and docks and wharfs, and
   18         WHEREAS, space is not simply a program; it is a collection
   19  of high-value destinations for freight and people, and these
   20  destinations require safe, reliable, and sustainable
   21  transportation operating on market-driven schedules, and
   22         WHEREAS, in order for this state to become the planet’s
   23  premiere transportation hub for global space commerce; to
   24  facilitate the logistics and transport of commodities,
   25  materials, human crew, and robotic systems to operate facilities
   26  in various orbits, at Earth-lunar waypoints, and on the moon;
   27  and to become the primary port of entry into Earth’s marketplace
   28  for products from space, spaceports should qualify as private
   29  activity bonds financing-exempt facilities under the Internal
   30  Revenue Code, and
   31         WHEREAS, this qualification will encourage more investment
   32  in aerospace infrastructure, ensuring that this state remains at
   33  the forefront of the space economy, and
   34         WHEREAS, in the face of growing competition from China and
   35  others, the aggressive development of infrastructure in Florida,
   36  the dominant state in the commercial space economy, is key to
   37  maintaining the United States’ leadership in space, and
   38         WHEREAS, currently, certain parts of operations at airports
   39  and docks and wharfs qualify for tax-exempt financing, NOW,
   40  THEREFORE,
   41  
   42  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   43  
   44         That the Congress of the United States is urged to add
   45  spaceports as a qualified tax-exempt category of private
   46  activity bonds.
   47         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State dispatch
   48  copies of this memorial to the President of the United States,
   49  the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the
   50  United States House of Representatives, and each member of the
   51  Florida delegation to the United States Congress.