Rep. wants to boost space technology

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is again championing his perennial bill to exempt businesses that manufacture goods or provide services in outer space from federal taxes, saying such an exception would foster innovation and ensure America stayed on top of the space race.

The bill would also provide for further exemptions from capital gains taxes if stock is sold from a corporation that is “organized exclusively for providing … any product or article which is produced … in outer space” that allocates 90% of its expenses to producing and trading such products.

Rohrabacher has introduced the bill in every Congress since 2000, but the bill has failed to move forward.

The measure is comparable to federal measures taken during the 19th century expansion of the American railroad, and will foster innovations like civilian trips into space, Rohrabacher said.

Local Democrat Dan Kalmick, who is running in his party’s congressional primary for Rohrabacher’s seat, said he thought the bill wouldn’t accomplish much.

“It’s about half a million dollars a pound to get something into space. That’s what’s really stopping things from being built in outer space, not taxes,” he said. “I think we need to build things in this country before we start deciding to build things in outer space.”

“We have a certain amount of money that goes into the space program and America’s effort to utilize space, and I believe a lot more could be mobilized from the private sector, perhaps more effectively than what we spend by the government,” Rohrabacher countered. “This would be a good method of encouraging more private sector investment in space-related endeavors.”

Rohrabacher added that he hoped an exemption from capital gains taxes on certain “space companies” would encourage investors to support new technology, without wasting federal tax dollars.

“If you’ve got a new business that is trying to set up shop and get investors, the company could initially get a lot of investors right up front if they are excluded from capital gains tax,” he said. “They could finance some very cutting-edge technologies.”

But Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook, who is also campaigning for Rohrabacher’s seat in the Democratic primary, said there were plenty of terrestrial projects that could use the help.

“You know, there are so many things that need to be incentivized on planet Earth, including our energy problem,” she said.

Efforts to reach Democrats Richard Lara and Alan Schlar and Republican Ronald R. St. John were unsuccessful.

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at [email protected].