Proposed Bills For 87th Legislative Session

PIERRE, SD - Starting Tuesday, lawmakers will discuss hundreds of proposed bills during this session. There are already more than 100 bills submitted for the 2012 session.  So, we've broken down a few to give you a little insight on what could be discussed.

Senate Bill 43: 
• The bill proposes that if a person fails to report the death or disappearance of a child within a certain amount of time, it will be criminal act.
• When a child is missing, if a parent, legal guardian or caregiver knowingly fails to report a child under the age of 13 missing within 48 hours, they could be found guilty of a class one misdemeanor.
• As for the death of a child, it's proposed that if any parent or legal care taker who doesn't notify police of the death of minor child in his or her care within six hours, they can be found guilty of a Class Five Felony, which is punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment.

Senate Bill 35:
• The bill proposes to increase penalties regarding pipeline safety inspections. Current state law limits the maximum civil penalties to $10,000.  The passage of Senate Bill 35 would increase that to $100,000 for each violation that persists. The maximum penalty could not exceed $1 million, which would be an increase from the existing $500,000 maximum penalty.

House Bill 1029:
• The proposed bill would authorize the publication of infomation on the 100 residents who owe the most in outstanding taxes.  The list would include their names, address, type of taxes, and total amount still owed and be updated quarterly.

Senate Bill 44:
• If passed, the bill would encourage schools to adopt a bullying policy. There would be a standard bullying policy put in place for schools to use until they came up with their own. 

The 87th Legislative Session is scheduled to last through March.