The Connecticut House of Representatives has approved legislation intended to preserve Connecticut’s $1 billion dairy industry. The House approved the bill a day after the state Senate unanimously endorsed it.

The bill garnered support from Representative Bryan Hurlburt (D-Ashford) and Senator Donald Williams and Senator Andrew Roraback, whose districts contain many of the family dairy farms and remaining countryside the state is working to preserve.

The bill will be transmitted to the Governor for her signature.

“This issue is about saving an important part of Connecticut’s economy and cultural heritage,” Governor Rell said. “We have lost far too many dairy farms in recent years to high production costs and development pressure. Our dairy farmers are struggling and we recognize our responsibility to save this unique and irreplaceable part of the state’s agricultural character and preserve our ability to produce food.”

The legislation changes the funding formula for money raised by $40 fee for recording municipal land documents to be used as grants under the Community Investment Account (CIA). Under the current CIA structure, the money is divided in four equal portions or 25 percent each to the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism (CCT) for heritage preservation, the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) for affordable housing, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for municipal open space and the Department of Agriculture for agriculture viability grants and farmland preservation.

The new bill would allot 20 percent each to the CCT, CHFA and DEP and use the remaining 40 percent for direct grants to dairy farmers to help them stay in business and staunch the exodus of farms. The Governor said this funding provision would end on July 1, 2011.