The South Dakota legislative session wrapped up last week and it was a good year for agriculture. That’s according to Ag Unity Lobbyist Brenda Forman. She says they successfully passed legislation supportive of livestock development including a bill that will streamline the appeals process for conditional use permits for CAFOs. However, the most significant was a bill brought by Senator Arthur Rusch, a former judge, who questioned why pork production was not treated the same as other livestock under the Family Farm Act.
She says another win was passage of SB 136 which designates buffer strips around water bodies as non-cropland which lowers the property tax assessment. Forman says the Governor is waiting to sign the bill pending judicial review.
Forman says they also consider the education funding plan a victory. The half cent increase in sales tax and the excise tax on machinery will be an added cost for farmers, but it will be offset by lower property taxes.
Forman says they’re also proud of the $175,000 appropriated for SDSU to develop soil tables to assess property taxes on farmland. Plus they landed nearly $1.6 million for updates to the Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Lab at SDSU.
