Lawmakers blame budget cut for dip in tickets

By The Associated Press | Sunday, March 16, 2008

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The fact that South Dakota Highway Patrol citations and arrests have dropped since Gov. Mike Rounds proposed a $2 million budget cut for the agency is proof that the governor was wrong, according to state Sen. Gene Abdallah, a critic of the cuts.

"We've all made mistakes. He made a mistake, and he won't own up to it," Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls, said of Rounds.

State Sen. Scott Heidepriem, leader of the Senate Democrats, agreed.

"How much more evidence do you need that this is a failed policy?" he told the Argus Leader. "It's just a shame for the people of South Dakota."

There was legislative support at first to restore the money, but the cut ultimately stood.

The 2008 Legislature meets Monday for its final day and will consider gubernatorial vetoes and any last-minute business.

The patrol had 8,426 arrests and tickets statewide from December to February, a 31 percent decrease from the same three months a year earlier.

"We don't judge highway safety or the effectiveness of the Highway Patrol based on the number of tickets written by our troopers. I don't believe in quotas," Rounds said in a statement to the Argus Leader.

"The Highway Patrol has been directed to monitor their needs, and if they're not able to reduce their overtime by an hour a week per trooper and get the job done, we have the ability to address the situation.

Rounds will meet with patrol officials next month to assess the budget cut's effects.

Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Dan Mosteller, in a January meeting with lawmakers, said the cut would mean a 2 percent drop in arrests and that the public would be no less safe. The agency planned to cover the reduction by driving less, cutting overtime and delaying vehicle replacement.

Abdallah, a former state Highway Patrol superintendent, said a high-ranking public safety official told him the changes went into effect when Rounds assembled his budget proposal. He would not identify the official.

"They implemented it in December," Abdallah said. "They said they were trying to ease into it."

The changes are representative of a governor who does what he wants regardless what lawmakers say, according to Heidepriem. "He isn't waiting for the Legislature to authorize that action. He just did it."

Rounds' e-mail statement did not address the Sioux Falls lawmakers' contentions that the cuts already have begun.

Crash numbers, not arrest figures, are the best indicator of whether the patrol is doing its job, said Tom Dravland, state public safety secretary. He noted that serious accidents and alcohol-related crashes are down significantly from December and January more than a year ago.

"The patrol's goal is not to write as many tickets as it can. The patrol's chief goal is to reduce death and injury on our roadways," Dravland said. "The significant drop in crash statistics is an indication South Dakotans are driving more responsibly."

For 2007, the patrol arrested and ticketed 16 percent fewer people than in 2006, and during that time, drunken driving arrests dropped 17 percent.

Fatal crashes dropped 25 percent and alcohol-related fatalities were down 18 percent in 2007, Dravland said.