Governor pushes for state funded Biopark

Governor Tom Vilsack says the state should put up 50-million dollars for a “biopark” in central Iowa. Vilsack calls the Biopark the “crowning jewel” in his “Iowa Works” economic development plan. Vilsack envisions a full-scale research facility, built and paid for by the state, that would keep and attract high-tech, “life science” businesses to a research corridor between Iowa State University and the University of Iowa.Vilsack says it’s his dream that Iowa expand beyond growing corn and beans to growing cures for cancer and other diseases.Vilsack says the state has already laid the groundwork for such an effort. Vilsack says Iowa State’s a leader in plant sciences and the University of Iowa has become a leader in biomedicine. The 50-million dollars would come from a state fund filled with profits the state made by selling the settlement tobacco companies have pledged to pay over the next couple decades.