A Senate committee passed a bill Tuesday that would approve harsher drunken driving penalties in Wisconsin, but it could cost the state as much as $73.7 million a year.
The new bill would increase the minimum prison time for a person convicted of a third-offense of operating while intoxicated from 30 to 45 days. The bill would also require most repeat offenders to install ignition interlocks.
The bill would also make a fourth-offense OWI a felony if they commit the crime within five years of the previous offense. It would also make a first-offense OWI a misdemeanor if there is a child under the age of 16 in the vehicle. Currently, Wisconsin is the only state in the nation that does not consider the first OWI a crime.
The majority of the estimated $73.7 million annual expenses depend on state prison costs, according to a memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
To help condense the cost, a 50-cent-per-liter increase of the current hard liquor tax was proposed. This would raise the hard liquor tax to just over $1.35 per liter and bring in approximately $25.7 million to the state in the fiscal 2010-11 year, according to LFB spokesperson Sean Moran.
Sen. Russell Decker, D-Schofield, is a co-sponsor of the bill and supports the changes in public policy, according to spokesperson Carrie Lynch. She added Decker also thinks it makes sense to raise the hard alcohol tax to help pay for the alcohol problems associated with drunken driving.
Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, also supports the changes but is concerned with raising taxes to pay for the bill, according to spokesperson Kimber Liedl.
“Democrats have raised taxes by $5 billion dollars and at one point [Fitzgerald] says enough is enough. There should be other ways to fund this program other than to raise taxes even more,” Liedl said.
The tax hike proposal was announced 13 minutes prior to the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Corrections, Insurance, Campaign Finance Reform and Housing meeting Tuesday, according to a statement released Tuesday by Sen. Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac.
“Republicans weren’t even afforded the time to read the proposal before the start of our hearing today,” Hopper said in a statement. “I could not responsibly support or oppose a measure that I haven’t even been allowed an opportunity to read. This is why I refused to cast a vote.”
An OWI bill already passed through the Assembly Sept. 17 that criminalizes a OWI when there is a minor under the age of 16 riding in the vehicle and mandates ignition interlocks for repeat offenders.
The Senate Judiciary Committee also held a hearing Tuesday about two OWI-related bills.
The first bill would increase penalties for a person who is pulled over with a BAC of 0.2 or more, or a BAC of 0.16 or higher combined with the presence of a controlled substance. The second bill refers to the prohibition of alcohol consumption for drivers of “commercial quadricycles,” which are human-powered pedal transportation devices capable of transporting up to 12 people.
