SD Legislature: Pick up your own roadkill
1:42 PM
Posted: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The roadkill bill in the South Dakota Legislature went belly up Wednesday in the state Senate, although it may be resuscitated.
Senators refused to accept a change in the measure, sending it back to legislative negotiators to see if they can forge an acceptable compromise.
HB1293 would require that dead deer be picked up from state highways within 96 hours.
The Senate had added county highways to the pickup routes, but the House would not agree and the measure was sent Tuesday to negotiators from both chambers. They removed the requirement to pick up deer carcasses along county highways, but the change fell two votes short of acceptance Wednesday in the Senate.
Sen. Gary Hanson, D-Sisseton, urged approval of HB1293 without the provision to retrieve deer from county roads.
"It got to be too expensive," he explained.
While there are 8,000 miles of state highways, there are nearly 36,000 miles of county highways in South Dakota.
State Transportation Secretary Darin Bergquist told legislators Tuesday that it costs $380,000 a year to hire people who pick up roadkill on the state highway system. He said it would cost up to $1.5 million more to provide the same service on county highways.
Sen. Gene Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls, argued that the bill should be killed instead of sending it back to negotiations with the House. State officials have authority to require the pick up of roadkill, and there's no need for such a law, he said.
"If they're not competent enough to tell their people to pick up the dead deer along the highway, what's the purpose of a law, plus the fact that this bill addresses only deer. Rabbits, skunks, badgers, raccoons get killed on the road. Are we going to leave them out there and just pick up the deer?"
The vote to accept the compromise was 22-13, but that was two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for Senate approval. Senators then voted 19-14 to send the issue back to negotiations.
Sen. Nancy Turbak Berry, D-Watertown, wondered what would happen if the Senate simply killed the roadkill bill.
"If we kill it, do we just leave it lie here?" she asked, drawing guffaws from her colleagues.
Senators refused to accept a change in the measure, sending it back to legislative negotiators to see if they can forge an acceptable compromise.
HB1293 would require that dead deer be picked up from state highways within 96 hours.
The Senate had added county highways to the pickup routes, but the House would not agree and the measure was sent Tuesday to negotiators from both chambers. They removed the requirement to pick up deer carcasses along county highways, but the change fell two votes short of acceptance Wednesday in the Senate.
Sen. Gary Hanson, D-Sisseton, urged approval of HB1293 without the provision to retrieve deer from county roads.
"It got to be too expensive," he explained.
While there are 8,000 miles of state highways, there are nearly 36,000 miles of county highways in South Dakota.
State Transportation Secretary Darin Bergquist told legislators Tuesday that it costs $380,000 a year to hire people who pick up roadkill on the state highway system. He said it would cost up to $1.5 million more to provide the same service on county highways.
Sen. Gene Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls, argued that the bill should be killed instead of sending it back to negotiations with the House. State officials have authority to require the pick up of roadkill, and there's no need for such a law, he said.
"If they're not competent enough to tell their people to pick up the dead deer along the highway, what's the purpose of a law, plus the fact that this bill addresses only deer. Rabbits, skunks, badgers, raccoons get killed on the road. Are we going to leave them out there and just pick up the deer?"
The vote to accept the compromise was 22-13, but that was two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for Senate approval. Senators then voted 19-14 to send the issue back to negotiations.
Sen. Nancy Turbak Berry, D-Watertown, wondered what would happen if the Senate simply killed the roadkill bill.
"If we kill it, do we just leave it lie here?" she asked, drawing guffaws from her colleagues.
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