Anyone who doubts the importance of improving the science education facilities at our state universities need only take a tour of the science labs at Black Hills State University or the chemistry, chemical-engineering or paleontology labs at the S.D. School of Mines & Technology.

At BHSU, labs are outdated, overcrowded and upstaged by many high school science classrooms.

At Mines, the chemistry and chemical engineering building is 50 years old, and the paleontology lab is a double-wide trailer.

Early this week, the state Legislature will address those problems when it gives first hearing to HB1085, a funding bill that would allow the state to issue $75 million in revenue bonds and use that money to build or upgrade 11 science facilities at seven different campuses.

Here in western South Dakota, the Board of Regents wants to spend $8 million for new science building at BHSU and about $25 million on facilities at Mines.

HB1085 comes at a critical juncture in the state's economic development. The National Science Laboratory in Lead looms as a very real possibility on the horizon. With new federal mandates, ethanol development is more promising than ever statewide. Coal trains and oil pipelines may soon cross the state from east to west and north to south and the Black Hills Vision technology corridor initiatives are many and promising.

Because of that development, it is imperative that the Legislature not turn a blind eye to long-overdue improvements in our state's higher-education science programs. The best time to pay for the desperately needed upgrades was years ago. The next-best time is now.

The Legislature and the regents may have some horse trading to do on the final appropriation. The governor's office would rather approve a bonding limit of $65 million and require that half of the annual interest payments come from the general fund, half from student fees or private gifts. We certainly like the idea of industries that benefit from the well-educated science graduates of the School of Mines and other state schools contributing to their educations through substantial corporate donations for improved science buildings.

Regardless of the final payment plan, however, the time has come to upgrade our university labs. Yes, the price tag is high. But the cost of not investing in tomorrow's science students and the state's future is higher, still.