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SD Senate supports rail rehabilitation project
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The state Senate has approved a measure that seeks to repair a state-owned rail line between Chamberlain and Reliance in central South Dakota.
• The bill originally sought $6 million.
• But before senators passed the bill and sent it to the House, they changed it so it would spend only $1. Supporters say lawmakers will decide at the end of this year's legislative session whether the state can afford to spend enough money to actually rehabilitate the rail line.
• The rail line from Mitchell to Chamberlain, on the east shore of the Missouri River, was upgraded in a project completed in 2012.
• Sen. Mike Vehle (VAL'ee) of Mitchell says it's time to upgrade another stretch of the line to Reliance, about 15 miles west of the Missouri River.
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SD Senate passes bills to fund development program
CHET BROKAW, Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to approve Gov. Dennis Daugaard's plan to use a windfall in unclaimed property payments to finance the state's new economic development program.
• The bill will use $30 million from unexpectedly large receipts of unclaimed bank accounts and other abandoned assets to finance the Building South Dakota Fund, which provides loans and grants for housing, workforce education and infrastructure that support development projects. The measure will support the development fund for three years.
• Senators on Tuesday also approved a companion bill, which will use any state budget surpluses to support the development fund after the unclaimed property money runs out in three years.
• The development fund generally could not spend more than $10 million a year.
• The two bills, which next go to the House, change the financing of much of a major economic development program passed by the Legislature last year.
• The 2013 law seeks to attract large projects by refunding all or part of the state sales tax paid by projects costing more than $20 million. But the contractor's excise tax paid by such projects would go into the Building South Dakota Fund, which also would get money from the two bills passed Tuesday by the Senate.
• After the unclaimed property money has been spent, budget surpluses could be used each year to replenish the development fund, said Sen. Corey Brown, R- (Continued on page 22)
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