1 minute read | October.15.2025
Oklahoma, Texas, California and Florida could see an increase in space infrastructure projects financed by new tax-exempt private activity bonds (PABs) authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill, Orrick tax partner Edwin Oswald told the Bond Buyer.
“Those are the most likely states in which this [financing] could be an advantage as private space travel and the privatization of space becomes more common,” Edwin said, pointing to their established spaceports and availability of open land.
A provision in the new federal law authorizes the issuance of PABs for spaceports, treating them similarly to bonds issued by public authorities for airport improvements. Under the new authorization, spaceports are not subject to state volume caps and, like airport PABs, would be issued by local governments on behalf of private developers. [For more, see Edwin’s previous insights on the federal spaceport financing provision here.]
"The strength of this provision is that it's not written out of whole cloth – it ties into the current airport bond rules, so a lot of the conventions are tried and true," Edwin noted.