BROOKINGS COUNTY (10-19-26) — Brookings Radio and the Brookings Beacon now continue Election 2026 coverage. This week, we profile candidates for Brookings County Commission.
Alan Brutty is a small business owner seeking office for the first time.
When it comes to the 765-kilovolt transmission line proposed to pass through Brookings County, he says he’d like to err on the side of caution… “I would be the type of county commissioner that would want to hear all of sides of that, but I would always try to err on the side of public safety, property owner rights, quality of life. What I mean by that is, let’s just say for instance you’ve lived on a farm for 100 years and you’ve got a bunch of cows out there, and you look out one day and you have these transmission lines that were never there. And you were there first. And it affects your quality of life, because now there’s maybe it’s doing some adverse things to your animals. It’s changing how you handle things. I believe you have just as much say as somebody that would want it to come through.”
He said he is not in favor of implementing Senate Bill 96 in Brookings County — that’s the optional half-cent sales tax counties can use to lower local, homeowner property taxes… “I do not favor new taxes. I do not favor taxing somebody that doesn’t own a property. So a half-cent on somebody buying groceries, or buying gas, or paying their utility bills or however that gets applied for the relief of property taxes for somebody else is not something that I’m a big fan of.”
Brutty says he’s running for office to try and inspire greater public participation in local government… “Local politics is achievable for anybody. Local politics is something that everybody should be a part of. Local politics is something that we all have a vested interest in whether we like to think so or not. And I can tell you that if you walk in there with the right set of objectives — some people call them agendas, and they always say not to run with an agenda — but my agenda is quite simple. I want everybody to have a seat at the table.”
Three, four-year seats are up for grabs on the Brookings County Commission.
The complete interview with Alan Brutty is posted at https://www.brookingsradio.com/news/interview-brookings-county-commission-candidate-alan-brutty/.
The Brookings Beacon will also publish transcripts from the county candidate interviews this Wednesday.
Election day is November 3.
— Brookings Radio News
