§3554. Failure to pay assessment; penalty
A. Any buyer who fails to file a report or to pay any assessment within the required time by the commissioner shall forfeit to the commissioner a penalty of five percent of the assessment determined to be due, plus one percent of such amount for each month of delay or fraction thereof after the first month after such report was required to be filed or the assessment became due. The penalty shall be paid to the commissioner and shall be disposed of by him in the same manner as funds derived from the payment of the assessment imposed herein.
B. The commissioner of agriculture shall collect the penalties levied herein, together with any delinquent assessment, by any or all of the following methods:
(1) By voluntary payment by the person liable.
(2) By legal proceedings instituted in a court of competent jurisdiction.
(3) By injunctive relief to enjoin any buyer owing such assessment and/or penalties from operating his business or engaging in business as a buyer of soybeans, wheat, corn, or grain sorghum until the delinquent assessment and/or penalties are paid.
C. Any person required to pay any assessment provided for in this Chapter who refuses to allow full inspection of the premises, or any books, records, or other documents relating to the liability of such person for any assessment herein imposed, or who hinders or in any way delays or prevents such inspection, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or by imprisonment not to exceed six months, or both.
D. Whoever violates any other provision of this Chapter or any rule or regulation of the Louisiana Soybean and Grain Research and Promotion Board pursuant to the provisions of this Chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars or by imprisonment not to exceed thirty days, or both.
Added by Acts 1968, Ex.Sess., No. 45, §1. Amended by Acts 1972, No. 38, §2; Acts 1985, No. 390, §1, eff. July 10, 1985; Acts 2009, No. 24, §8G, eff. June 12, 2009; Acts 2010, No. 861, §3.