The agricultural industry is supporting a new funding mechanism for the Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Lab at SDSU. Yesterday the South Dakota House State Affairs Committee approved a bill that would use money from the property tax relief fund set up as part of last year’s half cent sales tax increase. The plan would divert under twenty cents per acre and raise $3.3 million annually to pay down the bond. South Dakota Farm Bureau Lobbyist Mike Held says this is a good compromise.

Held says while they would have preferred the dollars come from the state general fund, farm groups are generally supportive of this funding bill. He says that’s because they were opposed to the system of user fees proposed by the Governor in SB 172.

SB 172 will now be amended to include the new funding mechanism, although a vote has not been schedule on the legislation yet.

The new lab is estimated to cost over $68 million dollars.