The Florida Legislature last month did not pass a bill this year that would have created a state space commission—legislators killed the bill because of unrelated amendments—but that’s not going to stop Governor Jeb Bush. According to Florida Today, Bush will establish the commission anyway through an executive order, most likely during a board meeting of the Florida Space Authority on Friday. The purpose of the commission, the paper states, “would be to protect the $4.5 billion annual space industry impact in the state” during the phase-out of the space shuttle and the ramp-up of the Vision for Space Exploration. A follow-up article today suggests that one thing such a panel might recommend is consolidating the various state agencies involved in promoting space business in Florida. The editors of the paper are all for it: they ask the commission to recommend devoting more resources to economic development, research, and education, among other items.
Will they ever learn? Creating yet another bureaucracy, no doubt with a budget, that will probably achieve the exact opposite of “devoting more resources to economic development, research, and education”.