First-time DUIS get second look
Wis. lawmakers’ push to criminalize finds ally in governor
MADISON, Wis. — With a new Democratic ally in the governor’s office, a handful of Republican lawmakers are pushing for Wisconsin to join the rest of the country and criminalize first-offense drunken driving.
But powerful Republican opponents are already lining up against the idea, calling it impractical and too expensive.
“We want to feel like we’re really being strict on drunk drivers,” said Republican state Sen. Van Wanggaard, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and an opponent of criminalizing first offenses. “But it’s not about punishing that person that made that poor choice. It’s about directing them to make good choices.”
Milwaukee has served as home to some of the country’s biggest brewers, including Pabst, Schlitz, Miller and Blatz. The Princeton Review in 2017 rated the University of Wisconsin-madison as the school with the most beer.
The state ranks 20th in population but has landed among the top 15 states for drunken-driving arrests every year from 2005 through 2017, according to the latest statistics compiled by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. From 2005 through 2009 the state ranked in the top 10 for DUI arrests.
In 2015 alone, nearly 200 people were killed and an additional 2,900 were injured in alcohol-related crashes in the state, according to the latest state Department of Transportation data.
At a time when some states have talked about lowering their DUI limit — Utah just set its threshold at a nation-low of 0.05 percent blood alcohol content — Wisconsin remains the only state that treats a first offense as a civil violation akin to a speeding ticket rather than a crime.
For years, Republican state Rep. Jim Ott and Sen. Alberta Darling have been proposing legislation aimed at drunken driving. Ott has been on a decadelong quest after a drunken driver killed constituent Judy Jenkins’ pregnant daughter and 10-year-old granddaughter in 2008.
The Assembly overwhelmingly passed their 2013 proposal to make a first offense a misdemeanor, but the Senate did nothing with it. The powerful Tavern League of Wisconsin was officially neutral on the bill, but state agencies estimated it would cost more than $5 million to hire enough prosecutors and public defenders to handle the influx of new court cases.
Enter newly elected Gov. Tony Evers. He made waves during his campaign when he said he’s open to criminalizing first offenses.
“We have to find ways to make that first offense more meaningful to the offenders so they don’t offend again or don’t offend the first time,” Evers said.