ARLINGTON, Va. -- Raising safety-violation fines for U.S. mine operators will be time-consuming as well as costly without making miners safer, witnesses told federal officials yesterday.

"It is simply a new tax on the mining industry as a whole," said Edward "Ned" Fitch, recently retired as a litigation attorney for the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA. "It is punishing the entire mining industry for the conduct of a few bad apples."

In June, the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act established a new maximum fine of $220,000 for flagrant safety violations, up from the previous $60,000 maximum.

Mr. Fitch was one of three witnesses at yesterday's public hearing at MSHA headquarters, the first of six regional hearings on the act. About 30 people attended.

Besides Mr. Fitch, attorney Adele Abrams and Patrick Jacomet, executive director of the Ohio Aggregates and Industrial Minerals Association, said they believed that MSHA has overreacted to this year's mining tragedies by proposing an unreasonable fee structure.

Patricia Silvey, acting director for MSHA's Office of Standards, Regulations and Variances, said, "I think we'll hear a lot of widely varying comments" in the remaining five hearings.

With such steep fines, companies may feel pressed to appeal each one, Ms. Abrams said. Inspectors, field office supervisors and district managers will spend more time at hearings, and "that will diminish their availability for inspections." The next hearing is tomorrow in Birmingham, Ala.