In the near future, we will be re-introducing legislation (SB 781 Last Session) to help bring new dairy processing facilities to Pennsylvania and expand markets for milk from Pennsylvania farms.

Pennsylvania’s dairy industry contributes 11.8 billion dollars in annual economic revenue and supports 47,000 jobs. Pennsylvania has over 500,000 cows producing nearly 10.2 Billion Pounds of Milk Annually.

Pennsylvania is second only to Wisconsin for most dairy farms in the entire nation. Despite the high number of farms, PA is only seventh when it comes to dairy production. Our farmers have plenty of milk to bring to market, but our commonwealth lacks the facilities needed to produce additional varieties of milk products that cater to evolving consumer trends.

We have the abundant water and land base needed to attract new dairy processing plants, but PA's notoriously unfriendly business climate causes us to lose out on investment to other states.

Our legislation will seek to reverse this trend by creating Keystone Opportunity Dairy Zones (KODZ) that will provide tax incentives for new dairy processing facilities using PA milk.

Our bill will allow for the designation up to 20 opportunity zones throughout the commonwealth. Individuals and businesses within an authorized zone will be entitled to tax exemptions, deductions, abatements, and/or credits for a period of up to 10 years. A zone may also request to extend its designation for a period of three years.

Milk processing facilities that qualify for the KODZ would be required to invest private capital, create new jobs, and utilize Pennsylvania milk from Pennsylvania farms.

This legislation is supported by the PA Farm Bureau and dairy farmers across the commonwealth.

Last Session, this legislation was co-sponsored by Senators CULVER, DUSH, GEBHARD, SCHWANK AND J. WARD.

Please join us as a co-sponsor to help our struggling dairy farmers and transform Pennsylvania into a dairy producing powerhouse. If you have any questions regarding this bill, please contact Don Beishl at dbeishl@pasen.gov or Josh Paul at jpaul@pasen.gov.