(The Center Square) – Much like the Legislature authored a major tax incentive package prior to landing several data centers, a similar approach seems to be in the works to attract aerospace investments.
A new cluster of bills recently filed offer aerospace companies making major investments a wide range of tax incentives and exemptions, as well as shielding them from certain liabilities.
Companies have made clear that such tax packages do work to bring major investments to the state. For instance, when Hyundai testified before the state’s Clean Hydrogen Task Force, executives told the committee that the incentives offered were a major factor in choosing Louisiana for their massive steel factory.
“To enable and catalyze this economy, economic development incentives and greater certainty are key factors in accelerating adoption,” Hyundai North America Senior Vice President Jim Park said in June. “If you want to really develop economically and have more companies join the party, those types of incentive packages do work.”
The aerospace package is sweeping. House Bill 1088 by Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Praireville, would create a state and local sales tax rebate for machinery, equipment, materials, supplies and services used in aerospace activities at certified facilities. A similar tax rebate was authored in 2024 for data centers.
To qualify, a project would have to promise at least 200 new full-time jobs and $1 billion in capital investment, with an initial rebate term of 20 years and a possible 10-year renewal.
Bacala is also carrying House Bill 1179, which would extend Industrial Tax Exemption Program eligibility to aerospace manufacturing and to infrastructure such as launch pads, propellant systems and testing facilities. Rep. Jack McFarland’s, R-Jonesboro, HB1098 would limit certain liability claims against aerospace operators, while HB1071 would exempt some aerospace facility records from public disclosure.
The 200-job and $1 billion thresholds in HB1088 are high enough to exclude most routine industrial projects, pointing instead to the kind of large, specialized development similar to the influx of data centers into the state.
The bill’s fiscal note says Louisiana Works lists about 32 establishments under the NAICS code for aerospace product and parts manufacturing, while Louisiana Economic Development identifies 45 aerospace facilities statewide, including major operations tied to NASA, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.
In the 2024 session, lawmakers passed HB827, later Act 730, creating a generous state and local sales tax rebate for approved data center facilities. The law offered 20 years of rebates, with a possible 10-year renewal, for projects meeting thresholds of at least 50 jobs and $200 million in investment. At the time, the fiscal note said there were 10 data centers in Louisiana and no known projects under construction that would meet the bill’s specifications.
Months later, the state announced Meta’s $20 billion data center in Richland Parish, which has become a major fixture of controversy. Louisiana Economic Development’s own data-center page now says the state “rewrote laws and negotiated tax incentives at a breakneck pace” to land the project.
A year later, Hut 8 announced its River Bend AI data center in West Feliciana Parish, and LED said that project has secured the sales tax rebate incentive. And in February, Amazon announced a $12 billion data center “campus” that “reinforces the state’s position as a national leader in digital infrastructure.”
Louisiana already has a foothold in aerospace through Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where Louisiana Economic Development says nearly 90% of the rocket powering NASA’s Artemis II mission was manufactured.
