Stu Witt and Peter Navarro make a (probably futile) plea to Sacramento. Don’t hold your breath, guys. As you noted, the state’s politicians don’t give a damn.
10 thoughts on “Losing California Space”
Comments are closed.
Stu Witt and Peter Navarro make a (probably futile) plea to Sacramento. Don’t hold your breath, guys. As you noted, the state’s politicians don’t give a damn.
Comments are closed.
What do the people in Mojave need from Sacramento?
Given the taxes and regulations in California is has always surprised me why anyone would want to have a New Space firm there. I suspect its mostly just inertial from the old days that the industry hasn’t relocated to better places, like New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Nevada. Unfortunately this only given support to those in Sacramento who argue that the taxes and regulation have not hurt California entrepreneurs.
“Given the taxes and regulations in California is has always surprised me why anyone would want to have a New Space firm there.”
It wasn’t always this bad, and California does have excellent flying weather a lot of the time.
New Mexico is a puzzle to me. The state has a gross receipts tax, and the government is so corrupt you can virtually taste it. And it’s literally as nowhere as you can get. I know what its like to do space business there, and I wouldn’t if given every incentive in the world.
Nevada would seem to be a much more inviting place.
Nevada is notoriously corrupt as well.
It wasn’t always this bad, and California does have excellent flying weather a lot of the time.
It also has a robust industrial base for aerospace manufacturing (at last for now).
Jack, why don’t you read the linked article, and perhaps you won’t ask stupid questions. It seems unlikely, though, given your history.
I started two companies in California, but I couldn’t imagine doing it again. Nothing there now but mostly-boiled frogs who still don’t realize why the water’s so hot..
How long before much of California resembles today’s Detroit? Twenty years? Ten?
I’m thinking ten, Brad. Several of the remaining legacy space operations in the LA basin will be impacted with the ending of the Shuttle program. Some will continue to support DoD missions, but none are finding their way into commercial side.
However, the employees can, or at least could have, easily transitioned to new aerospace companies working on commercial activities. They might have relocated across town, but the jobs would have stayed in the area. Now, those jobs will relocated to another state. That’s not much different than the automobile manufacturing capability that moved out of Detroit to other states.
I’m not complaining. I live in Texas. Perhaps we can woo some of those businesses over here. I also note Texas is far ahead of California in developing renewable energy. And we have a balanced budget by constitutional law.
New Hampshire has the second lowest tax burden in the country, and I’d be happy to help a new space firm moving here get Pease Trade Port (formerly Pease AFB) approved as a Space Port by the state legislature and FAA.
This would put a firm in close proximity to a lot of university and wealthy touristy types, its by the coast so air launched missions can easily fly out over the ocean with clear air space.
I think the hotels along Hampton Beach are probably a lot more scenic than those in the Mojave Desert.
With the draw down in naval construction, the submarine base in Portsmouth harbor also has large enough dry dock and metal fab facilities to build Sea Dragons, also….