WI drunken driving bills collide with cold, hard fiscal facts

By Alyssa Hertig and M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – Wisconsin has racked up a bad reputation when it comes to alcohol consumption.

The Badger State is the binge-drinking capital of the country, according to state health advocate Health First Wisconsin.

The state’s standing on drunken driving isn’t much better.

In 2011, there were 28,213 operating while intoxicated convictions in Wisconsin and nearly 39 percent of those were repeat offenders, according to a Wisconsin Reporter investigation in August 2012. Four people were convicted of their 11th OWI in Wisconsin in 2011, and eight other drivers were hit with their 10th drunken-driving conviction, according to state Department of Transportation.

Two Republican lawmakers are proposing several bills to tighten up what many see as Wisconsin’s lax laws on drunken driving.

But while drunk drivers have taken a terrible toll on Wisconsin’s roadways, the proposed bills come with a hefty cost to taxpayers, who could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars, according to one fiscal estimate.

Read more at WisconsinReporter.com

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