PIERRE - A legislative committee rejected the South Dakota Brand Board's request for the authority to impose administrative fines for brand violations, such as failure to have cattle inspected.

However, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the board's request for the penalties for brand-inspection violations.

Brand board member Curt Mortenson argued that the board should be able to impose fines, beyond criminal penalties, to increase compliance with brand laws. He said the legislation was modeled after a similar measure that allows the Public Utilities Commission to impose fines.

Margaret Nachtigal of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association opposed the measure. She said the bill would unfairly transfer judicial power to the executive branch. "We're opposed to any board - whether it be the brand board or any board - having quasi-judicial authority."

Rep. Roger Hunt, R-Brandon, said he was concerned that the fines imposed by the brand board would go back to the board to fund enforcement. Agencies should not benefit from the fines they impose, he said. (Traffic fines, for example, don't go to police. They go to local schools.)

Rep. Joni Cutler, R-Sioux Falls, chairwoman of the committee, said lawmakers had been "put on alert," but she voted with the rest of the committee to move HB1054

to the "36th legislative day," which, during a 35-day session, essentially kills it.

In a separate bill, Mortenson did persuade the committee to decrease the penalty for breaking brand-inspection rules, which he said would result in increased compliance. Class 1 misdemeanors require an arrest, Mortensen said. Law officers are reluctant to take violators to jail and state's attorneys are reluctant to prosecute ranchers because the penalty is too severe - a year in jail and a $5,000 fine, for violations that in many cases involve unintended improper or missing documents.

Violators of Class 2 misdemeanors are ticketed and face maximum penalties of a $500 fine and 30 days in jail.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com