A bill introduced by a Democrat state representative could receive bipartisan support as legislators join forces to attach a more serious penalty to first offense drunk driving.

The legislation, authored by Rep. Peggy Krusick, D-Milwaukee, would essentially criminalize intoxicated drivers, even on their first offense, instead of providing a more basic moving violation ticket.

“The [OWI Reform] bill was written with significant help from a bipartisan legislative work group,” Krusick said. “I’m hopeful that the legislator and the governor’s office will support this comprehensive bipartisan drunken driving reform proposal.”

According to a statement from the Wisconsin Legislature website, Krusick proposed the OWI reform bill earlier this July in order to repeal Wisconsin Act Law 412 and reinstate harsher penalties for several “operating while intoxicated” offenses.

The bill is one of several bills legislators have sent to Gov. Scott Walker in hopes of promoting a bipartisan agenda for the current legislative session.

Along with the proposed OWI reform bill, the list also includes bills aiming to create a task force to reduce repeat offenses by rehabilitating former prisoners and creating a local board in Milwaukee responsible for overseeing the city’s charter schools, according to documents obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal through an open records request.

While legislators are hopeful that bipartisan cooperation can take place in light of Walker’s list of support, Walker spokesperson Cullen Werwie said the proposed list should not be taken as an endorsement.

“[The list of proposed bills are] not an endorsement,” Werwie said in an email to the Badger Herald. “But it’s a list of bills that Democratic legislators brought to our attention that we’re open to looking at moving forward.”

Krusick said the bill makes a first offense OWI a class “C” misdemeanor, which criminalizes a first offense OWI. Seventy-five percent of drunken drivers involved in fatal or serious crash in Wisconsin have no prior history of operating while intoxicated, she said, and Wisconsin is the only state in the nation that treats first offense driving the same as a traffic ticket.

Krusick said first time offenders should not be given less punishment because they have not been charged before, since even a first offender runs the risk of causing injury or death.

“The fatalities and injuries caused by first time offender bare no difference than those caused by a repeat offender,” she said. “First time OWI must be a crime every time.”

According to a statement from the Legislative Reference Bureau analyzing the bill, the current law, Wisconsin Act Law 412, passed in 2005, prohibits a person from operating a motor vehicle on a highway when the person’s motor vehicle operating privilege is suspended, revoked or if the person does not possess a valid driver’s license.

The LRB statement said Krusick’s bill repeals “knowing” OWS as a separate and distinct violation and repeals all other provisions of the 2005 Wisconsin Act 412. The new bill creates new penalties for all violations in which the person, in the course of the violation, causes great bodily harm or death to another person.

The LRB statement said these new penalties would include harsher fines and longer license suspension penalties. Krusick’s bill will be referred to the Transportation Committee and also to the Joint Review Committee on Criminal Penalties because of the new crime penalties that the bill creates.

The Joint Review committee will prepare a report concerning the proposed penalty and the costs or savings that would result if the bill passes through the Legislature.