A barrier to aerospace companies growing and staying in Colorado may soon be removed if a House bill that cleared the finance committee Thursday becomes law.

The bipartisan measure is an effort to keep the state competitive in a rapidly changing national landscape by matching similar tax breaks given to the aerospace industry in other states.

Introduced by House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, and House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, House Bill 1178 would give sales-and-use-tax exemptions for spaceflight property with minimal impact on Colorado's tax revenue.

"There are several other states that have moved this way," DelGrosso said. "Now Colorado has become uncompetitive."

Aerospace accounted for $8.7 billion of the Colorado economy in 2011 but is rarely discussed in the Colorado legislature something that many industry and political leaders believe must change.

"We are good right now, but there are storm clouds on the horizon and we have to be proactive," said Vicky Lea, manager of the Colorado Space Coalition and the aerospace industry for the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. "Competition among major aerospace states has never been more fierce."

For satellite companies such as Longmont-based DigitalGlobe, this tax which requires any spaceflight equipment to have an ownership transfer if it stays in the state longer than 60 days after it was built discourages keeping the work close to home.

"We were looking where to store (a new satellite received in an acquisition), and obviously we wouldn't do it in Colorado because they didn't have this legislation," said Brent Wilson, DigitalGlobe's director of tax. "We are hiring high-paying employees out of state to maintain that technical equipment."

The national aerospace landscape is shifting dramatically as a result of a number of factors, including federal budget constraints, which are disruptive to Colorado's aerospace cluster.

"Historically, Colorado has relied heavily on federal spending and contract awards to grow our aerospace industry," said Stacey DeFore, chairwoman of the Colorado Space Business Roundtable.

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Colorado legislature considers aerospace-related property-tax break