As your Assembly member representing the South Bay, and as chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Aerospace, I introduced legislation to support and grow one of the most exciting new industries in California, commercial space flight.
Private companies like Space X are building rocket ships and creating thousands of good paying manufacturing jobs right here in Southern California. We want these companies to invest and grow in our state.
That is why I am fighting for Assembly Bill 777, a bill that provides a property tax exemption for the commercial space flight industry.
The California Chamber of Commerce has dubbed my bill a job creator.
The California Legislature made a significant step forward last week when the Senate came together with a strong bipartisan vote for AB 777. The bill will come back to the Assembly for one more vote before it hopefully moves on to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk for his signature.
Passage of AB 777 will be one giant leap forward for this exciting new industry and for California.
We need to support California’s aerospace industry. For more than a hundred years, the aerospace industry helped build the South Bay and much of California’s economy.
One recent study estimates the overall economic impact of California’s aerospace industry at $62 billion, which is larger than the state’s agriculture and entertainment industries combined.
Directly and indirectly, the aerospace industry accounts for more than half a million jobs for Californians.
Last week, there was more good news for California’s aerospace industry. Boeing announced its plans to relocate more than a thousand engineering jobs to Long Beach to expand its commercial aircraft design center.
What attracts companies like Boeing and Space X to California? Our skilled and educated workforce.
Generations of Californians have built the best planes, satellites and rocket ships in the world.
We need to make sure that California does not lose its competitive advantage with its skilled and educated workforce.
In my role as chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Funding, I am fighting to reverse a long trend of declining state funding for public higher education.
California’s public university system continues to be among the best in the nation.
The University of California continues to lead the nation and the world in research and innovation. The California State University and our community colleges educate and train our future workforce.
We need to reinvest in California’s public universities and colleges so that our workforce will continue to be globally competitive.
We also need to continue to invest in successful career technical education programs like the Southern California Regional Occupational Center. Programs like So Cal ROC provide career pathways for high school students in the growing STEM fields — or science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
These are our future aerospace mechanics and technicians.
It’s important to work to improve the state’s business climate and to invest in our future workforce.
These are common sense policies that will keep California on the path toward economic growth and allow our children to continue reaching for the stars.
Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi , D-Torrance, represents the 66th District, which includes
