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ing, infrastructure, workforce development and other programs needed to spur economic development.
• The special fund also would get a portion of unclaimed property the state receives from abandoned bank accounts.
• The legislative leaders said they do not know how much money would wind up in the special fund because there's no way to predict how many projects would contribute contractor's excise tax payments each year. They said unclaimed property receipts also vary from year to year.
• Senate Democratic Leader Jason Frerichs of Wilmot said the sales tax breaks could be used to encourage manufacturing, wind power projects and agricultural processing plants. The state needs to boost development in rural areas, he said.
• South Dakota now has no incentive program because a previous program that refunded construction taxes for big industrial projects was allowed to expire Dec. 31. A replacement plan suggested by Gov. Dennis Daugaard was rejected by voters in the November election. The governor's plan would have taken money from the contractor's excise tax to be used for discretionary grants to companies that would not have located in South Dakota without those incentives, but opponents said that would have used money that should instead be spent on education and other priorities.
• The legislative leaders said their new plan would be funded largely by contractor's excise taxes paid by companies that would not come to South Dakota without the program. The state also is getting more unclaimed property funds because a large bank has moved to South Dakota and the state has changed its laws. Banks used to give the state unclaimed deposits after five years when owners could not be located, but the new law shortened that to three years.
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