Have At It: Will tougher laws stop drunk driving?

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – Wisconsin has a drinking problem. And a drinking-and-driving problem.

The Badger State is No. 1 in binge-drinking, according to state health advocate Health First Wisconsin. A lot of those bingers get behind the wheel of a car.

In 2011, there were 28,213 operating-while-intoxicated convictions in Wisconsin. Nearly 39 percent of those were repeat offenders, according to a Wisconsin Reporterinvestigation in August 2012.

State Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon, and Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, want to face the problem head on. The lawmakers propose legislation that would stiffen penalties for drunken driving. Tougher laws, the lawmakers say, will drive down some of the nation’s worst drunken driving rates.

But the laws would come with a hefty cost, running in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to fiscal estimates.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, as first reported by Wisconsin Reporter this week, questions the cost and effectiveness of the legislation.

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