Money & Politics
Cost a Key Factor in Debate over Drunken Driving Laws
What's blocking Wisconsin from implementing new, tougher laws against drunken driving? It could be "the dollar factor."
Mark Grapentine is a seasoned observer of state politics. He was an aide to then-state Rep. Scott Walker and a policy adviser to then-Gov. Tommy Thompson. For the past decade, he’s been a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Medical Society. In this capacity, he’s pushed for tougher state drunken driving laws — and noticed that, despite an absence of pushback, these laws have stayed mostly the same. “It has been interesting to watch how there has been a lack of progress in an area where there seems to be a tremendous amount of agreement on the need to do something,” Grapentine says. Wisconsin remains the only state where first-offense drunken driving is not a crime, although the civil penalties include license suspension and substantial fines. Two …
DICK STEINBERG
6:01 pm on Thursday, May 9, 2013
As a former municipal judge I have heard hundreds or more of first offense OWI cases. The law has changed from .15 breath/blood test result to .10 to .08. It is reasonable to charge the .15 offender and over offender with a criminal violation. The logic that when a first time offender deserves kinder treatment is not supported by the fact that it was the first time the offender was caught. The … more ›