“Any support Texas can offer would be helpful,” Musk said at the hearing. While Texas was the leading candidate, “We are absolutely looking at other locations.”
Oliveira said Texas had to compete with other places. He told lawmakers that Florida had $20 million this fiscal year to recruit space-related companies.
Tina Lange, a spokeswoman for Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development agency, declined to comment on the value of possible incentives. Officials in Puerto Rico and Georgia aren’t publicly discussing any.
“For us to be competitive with other states, we have to make this attractive,” Oliveira told committee members. “We’ve heard numbers from other states that are pretty aggressive.”
By the end of the 2013 legislative session in May, lawmakers approved everything the company wanted, including changes to the law and $15 million for infrastructure.
Tax Breaks
Approval of incentives by the local officials is pending a final decision by the company, according to Salinas. Cameron County, where the beach is located, plans to offer tax breaks that could save SpaceX $2 million over 10 years, said County Judge Carlos Cascos, the top elected official.
The company likely will receive $3 million in incentives from the Brownsville Economic Development Council, which receives government funding, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who asked not to be identified because no final decisions have been reached.
State and local officials said they hope the incentives they put together will close the deal.
“We’ve moved forward over the past three years and done everything they’ve asked of us,” said Tony Martinez, mayor of Brownsville. “We were competitive with whatever Florida was putting together.”