Gov. Jay Nixon tours the state this week to sign into law a jobs bill with implications on two things there are no shortage of here — animal health companies and old houses.

He’s set to visit St. Joseph for a ceremonial signing of legislation state politicians wrangled with all session. The controversy stemmed primarily from a call for tax credit reform from state senators, including Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah.

The meat of the bill expands a state tax credit for employers who pay high wages and provide health benefits to their workers, known as the Quality Jobs program. The bill raises Quality Jobs’ existing cap of $60 million to $80 million and broadens the definition to include certain technology companies.

The program has a history in St. Joseph. To name a few, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica previously tapped into Quality Jobs, as did IVX Animal Health, which is now known as Teva Animal Health.

Imulan BioTherapeutics, a company that recently located in St. Joseph and has developed a treatment for leukemia in cats, is looking into the credits.

“That makes this place a greater place to be — that and we’re the center of the universe of the animal health industry,” said Gary Clapp, who runs the business incubator at Missouri Western State University and is president of the institute for Industrial and Applied Life Sciences.

But area animal health company executives were hoping to land access to a new tax credit for qualified research that senators took out of the bill. As originally proposed and touted during Mr. Nixon’s winter visit to Boehringer, the state would have awarded up to $10 million annually to offset expenses related to scientific research and development. Qualifying research would have included agricultural biotechnology, plant genomics products and prescription pharmaceuticals consumed by humans or animals.

Mr. Clapp said the credit would have assisted “different companies like Boehringer, Teva and even Nestle Purina doing any research and development.”

A new incentive proved hard to clinch while Mr. Lager and others were pushing to tighten the reins on tax credits.

“I don’t think it will inhibit their research, but it could hold down their ability to employ because you pay salaries with that,” Mr. Clapp said.

Also in the bill are new restrictions on a popular building incentive in St. Joseph. The Historic Preservation Tax credit program, which received heavy criticism for its large payouts, has exceeded $160 million annually, but the bill soon will limit the state to $140 million a year for larger restoration projects.

No cap will exist on old building projects that cost $1.1 million or less, but those recipients won’t be able to collect more than $275,000 in tax credits.

A former trustee on the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation from St. Joseph credited the program for its progress in saving the history of Missouri communities.

“You cannot reproduce this. This is not Disneyland,” Jennifer Higgs said of the handiwork of many older homes in St. Joseph. “Once the building is gone, you may have a picture of it, but that’s about it.”

Ms. Higgs, who previously received preservation tax credits to restore the Goetz Brewery Mansion on Francis Street, said she’s concerned the state is clamping up the program, but she’s relieved legislators didn’t eliminate it altogether, given the economic climate.

Mr. Nixon’s visit is scheduled for 9:45 a.m. Wednesday on the second floor of the Christopher S. “Kit” Bond Science and Technology Incubator, located on the Missouri Western State University campus.

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached at alysonraletz@npgco.com.