SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk. Photo credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani, under Creative Commons license

Officials of the state of California have denied a subsidy request from aerospace company SpaceX, which recently requested for about $655,000 in government subsidies to help fund training expenses for some of its programs. A California state panel on Friday denied SpaceX’s request, citing its chief executive Elon Musk’s recent threats to move the headquarters of his other company, automaker Tesla, out of the state of California following a spat with county officials over the re-opening of the automaker’s flagship California factory.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, factories across the state of California were ordered closed to help curtail the spread of the coronavirus. After closing for a while, Tesla CEO Elon Musk fought to re-open the automaker’s factory to begin production and actually did re-open it even against orders from an overseeing government county. In the wake of the re-opening, five members of California’s Employment Training Panel voted to deny SpaceX’s subsidy request while two voted in support. Alongside Tesla’s ordeal, recent media reports of layoffs at SpaceX were also considered as points that apparently contributed to the denial.

SpaceX’s subsidy request, although relatively small, also faced opposition by some organized labor groups. One of such groups called the “Teamsters Joint Council 7” put out a press release which propounded that “Musk is looking to fatten up at the public trough once again…at a time when too many hardworking Californians are lined up in miles-long food bank lines trying to feed their families,” noting of recent numerous job cuts in the state due to an economic blow resulting from the coronavirus outbreak.

“Mr. Musk is looking to fatten up at the public trough once again. He has a proven track record of enriching himself and his companies instead of being a good corporate partner who understands the value of operating a fair workplace. He and his company SpaceX are not deserving of taxpayers’ dollars,” the press release propounded.