The establishment in South Dakota of Riverview dairies, a Morris, Minnesota based megadairy company, is much in the news here in the Rushmore State.
On October 4, Bluestem republished a South Dakota Searchlight story, $86 million Riverview Dairy operation proposed on land owned by Governor Noem's brothers.
Over at Dakota Free Press, Cory Allen Heidelberger followed the money in that tale in his post Riverview Seeks $4.5M CAFO Bribe for Hamlin County:
Unsurprisingly, the dairy Riverview plans to build on the Governor’s brothers’ land plans to receive subsidies from the Governor:
The dairy will need permits from the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Hamlin County Board of Adjustment. The project is applying for a Governor’s Office of Economic Development program that would refund up to $4.5 million of the sales and use taxes spent to build the project [Joshua Haiar, “$86 Million Dairy Proposed on Land Owned by Governor’s Brothers,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2023.10.04].
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development has doled out great churns of assistance for Riverview’s other South Dakota dairy projects. Most recently, the Board of Economic Development approved a $4.4-million grant under the Reinvestment Payment Program last February for Riverview’s Redstone Dairy in Kingsbury County, although Riverview spokesperson Martha Koehl tells me that that money, per the February 8 grant contract, goes to Kingsbury County, not to Riverview, and that Riverview thus did not receive that grant money from GOED. . . .
On Wednesday, the Searchlight covered a story about more gravy flowing to a Riverview Dairy in State board approves $25 million bond for large dairy. this time a Riverview project in Clark County. Joshua Haiar reports:
A state board approved a bond of up to $25 million Wednesday to help a dairy near Bryant construct manure management facilities.
During a Zoom meeting, the South Dakota Economic Development Finance Authority approved issuing the bond for the 12,500-cow Washington Dairy owned by Riverview, a Minnesota company that already operates four other dairies and a feedlot in South Dakota. The funding will be used for site preparation, concrete collection lanes, lagoons, settling ponds, and other equipment to collect and dispose of manure.
The Livestock Nutrient Management Bond program issues tax-exempt bonds to purchasers — typically local banks — who set the repayment terms and interest rates for the company borrowing the money.
Members of the Economic Development Finance Authority are appointed by the governor. The bond program is one of many economic incentives offered by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED).
The authority held a public meeting on Sept. 20 at the Clark County Courthouse to collect feedback regarding the bond, but no members of the public attended.
In a separate project, Riverview plans to build an $86 million, 12,500-cow dairy in Hamlin County on land currently owned by Gov. Kristi Noem’s brothers. That would be the company’s sixth in the state. For that project, Riverview has applied to another GOED program for a refund of up to $4.5 million of sales and use taxes spent to build the dairy. . . .
Read the entire article at the South Dakota Searchlight.
Bluestem is curious how much financial aid the dairy giant is getting in the other states where it does business. Why do i suspect it's not chump change?
Photo: One of Riverview's giant dairy barns.
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- MN12A: Does Backer want to strip citizens of ability to ask MPCA for environmental studies?
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