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• "With the way this was structured, a lot of the funding doesn't really kick in until the next fiscal year and the one after that," said Brown, R-Gettysburg.
• Another major change would add a safety valve, withholding spending if projected ongoing revenues would be insufficient to fund education, Medicaid and state employee costs, Brown said.
• "I think that's a reasonable compromise," he said.
• A negotiating committee planned to consider the proposed changes Thursday morning.
• South Dakota currently has no incentive plan because a previous program that refunded construction taxes for large industrial projects was allowed to expire on Dec. 31. A replacement plan suggested by Gov. Dennis Daugaard was rejected by voters in the November election.
• Republicans and Democrats worked for the past two months to find a compromise to help level the playing field with other states that do a better job recruiting large projects.
• The bill also helps communities build the infrastructure needed to encourage development, works with the state's technical centers on training and helps K-12 schools bear the cost of English language training when a project draws workers from other cultures.
• South Dakota charges not only a 4 percent sales tax on construction projects, but also a 2 percent contractors' excise tax on gross receipts. Few other states have a contractors' excise tax, so construction is cheaper elsewhere.
• The new plan would refund part or all of the state sales tax paid by projects of more than $20 million that would not located in South Dakota without such an incentive.
• The contractors' excise tax collected on those projects would be placed in the Building South Dakota Fund so the state can reinvest in future projects. The new fund would also get a portion of unclaimed property that the state receives from abandoned bank accounts.
• Pat Costello, commissioner of the Governor's Office of Economic Development, pledged his support for the bill, especially the portion that helps attract large projects to the state.
• "There are pieces of it that we like more than others," Costello said, but he said he's thankful for the bipartisan effort.
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