Port St. Luice needs to ground its dream of launching its own airport.

Even if it was a general aviation airport that was desired there would be questions, but they are talking of an international one to rival Palm Beach International Airport.

Forget for a moment the million dollar studies that will be needed just to investigate the possibility, or getting the Federal Aviation Administration to reconfigure the flight patterns of the major carriers going to and from Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and even Miami international, or that Melbourne International Airport has struggled to find carriers willing to land on the technologically advanced Space Coast, or that there is already an airport in the county with international in its name.

I'm all for economic progress. But think about what this would do to the housing market where the airport is put down.

Recently Martin County had to get millions from the Federal Aviation Administration just to buy out 23 homes on a cul-de-sac at the northwest end of Witham Field. And they have plans to pay for sound insulation on other homes around the airport.

And that was for a general aviation airport.

Port St. Lucie is already looking to purchase 46 homes as part of the Crosstown Parkway's $105 million to $119 million river spanning link to U.S. 1. Someone is going to have to be moved for the thousands of acres needed for an airport, the roads leading to it and those who are lined up at the ends of the runways.

Also, imagine yourself having plucked down $500,000 for a home in western Port St. Lucie and now you have the prospect of 747s and 757s rumbling somewhere overhead as they arrive and depart.

You still have time to get out. This airport dream is a good two decades from realty, but now you’re going to be selling to people who, if they do their homework, may question logic of buying under potential flight paths.

If they want to do anything, build up St. Lucie International and establish a multi-space helipad at Tradition that can taxi people north to Fort Pierce if saving time on the road is driving this proposal.

Yes, California-based Burnman Institute opted for Orlando over Port St. Lucie, with one of the reasons given being that Orlando has an airport that can get its scientists and management quickly to San Diego.

But that should have only been a call to bulk up the local airport, to start talking to carriers - even if its just flights to the larger South Florida airports - about how to connect the Treasure Coast to its sister research cities of San Diego and Portland, Oregon.

What will it take for Port St. Lucie to build an airport?

Aid from statewide airport consultants, engineers, investors, businesses.

Commercial airlines to consider the Treasure Coast a lucrative hub.

A viable site location on the Treasure Coast.

Capacity at Palm Beach International Airport, Melbourne International Airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Miami International Airport, Orlando International Airport and Orlando-Sanford International Airport must reach 80 percent, something that is not expected to happen until 2025.


Building an airport will not be cheap.*

First studies must be undertaken:

Environmental assessment study - $200,000 to $500,000

Feasibility study - $500,000 to $700,000

Site selection study - $500,000 to $700,000

Purchase of land - $40 million upward Airport master plan study - $1 million to $3 million

Construction of airport: $100 million upward

*2005 numbers.

Saying Florida has one of the "best" tax systems for businesses in the nation may be hard to fathom because of the way Save Our Homes has been skewed heavily against businesses and non-homesteaded property owners.

However, that's the view of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, which on Thursday published the "Business Tax Index 2008: Best to Worst State Tax Systems for Entrepreneurship and Small Business."

Florida came in fifth, behind South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming and Washington.

The council used 16 different tax measures - including income, property, death/inheritance, unemployment, and various consumption-based taxes, state gas and diesel levies - into a single score to rank the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The 15 worst state tax systems are: 37) North Carolina, 38) Nebraska, 39) West Virginia, 40) Hawaii, 41) Idaho, 42) Vermont, 43) Massachusetts, 44) New York, 45) Rhode Island, 46) Maine, 47) Iowa, 48) California, 49) Minnesota, 50) New Jersey, and 51) District of Columbia. 

The United States has become a little more technologically advanced, according to the World Economic Forum's latest Global Information Technology Report. However, we still lag behind Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland in the annual report.

The rankings are based upon how tech-friendly national laws are, how ready people are to adapt to new technologies and how businesses, governments and people use technology.

The U.S. did get recognized for the most notable improvements, standing at 4th on the list this year, up three places from a year ago. The U.S. got credit for its research institutions, having the most patents, and marketplace. Our high tax rate and regulations were listed as negatives.

If you must know, here's the top 20 and bottom 10, with a few highlights.

Top 20

1 Denmark; 2 Sweden; 3 Switzerland; 4 United States; 5 Singapore; 6 Finland; 7 Netherlands; 8 Iceland; 9 Korea, Rep.; 10 Norway; 11 Hong Kong SAR; 12 United Kingdom; 13 Canada; 14 Australia; 15 Austria; 16 Germany; 17 Taiwan, China; 18 Israel; 19 Japan; 20 Estonia

Bottom 10

118 Cameroon; 119 Nepal; 120 Paraguay; 121 Mozambique; 122 Lesotho; 123 Ethiopia; 124 Bangladesh; 125 Zimbabwe; 126 Burundi; 127 Chad

Notables:

21 France; 29 United Arab Emirates; 31 Spain; 34 Chile; 42 Italy; 48 Saudi Arabia; 50 India; 57 China; 58 Mexico; 59 Brazil; 72 Russian Federation; 77 Argentina; 86 Venezuela.

The UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla is offering an idea that local researcher could pick up to help pay for their efforts.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Scripps Institution, for the right price you can have your name attached to a new species of sea slug - actually in this case a nudibranch, a pleasantly plump hermaphrodite mollusk with bright orange speckles - or a hydrothermal vent worm or any other newly found critter.

There are reportedly dozens species who names are up for sale by Scripps.

(Scripps Institution of Oceanography is not linked with Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers or the La Jolla-based Scripps Research Institute that is setting up Scripps Florida in Jupiter.)

Bidding starts at $5,000.

The purchase is considered a tax-deductible donation that would benefit the Scripps Oceanographic Collections, which is a repository of ocean life and rock samples collected over the past 100 years.

And these names won't go unrecognized by the international naming group, which is unlike what happens to those who pluck down $50 to the StarRegistry.com for a star to be named after you or a loved one.

Lawrance Bailey, Scripps' senior director of development, told the San Diego newspaper, "Once someone's name is attached to a species, it should last as long as science continues to use scientific names."

Just don't expect your name to be crawling all over the planet.

Most of the species being found by Scripps are now on the deepest parts of the vastly unexplored ocean floor or in lab jars.

The Burnham Institute for Medical Research may have spurned Port St. Lucie, but the research center hasn't forgotten the area.

Shirley Pomponi, director of Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch effort in Fort Pierce, said Thursday during the second annual Research Coast's BioTech Conference in Tradition, that scientists from Burnham's growing Orlando effort are making the drive to the coast for their work.

"They really wish they were here," she said. "They're working with Harbor Branch, they want to work on marine biotech." She added, as a joke, "They're Research Coast wanna bes."

But on a serious note, she added that she has been subtly courting the scientists to establish a Research Coast branch even as they await the completion of their new facility in Orlando.

In 2006, Burnham opted to set up its East Coast campus in the Lake Nona community of Orlando, taking the more than $100 million offer from the Central Florida community over the near matching proposal from the Port St. Lucie headed effort. Both efforts included the $155 million state match.