By Benjamin Dreyer
News-Chronicle
Deterring people who are legally drunk from driving vehicles has historically been viewed as an issue of highway safety. Wisconsin's proposed lowering of the legal blood-alcohol content from .10 to .08, however, is being received with mixed feelings as the 30-year-old limit of .10 faces closure.
The state Assembly's Transportation and Information Infrastructure Committee will meet Tuesday with the intent of moving to an executive session, whereupon the .08 BAC proposal will come to a vote.
Many local tavern owners and bar patrons question the state's motivation for the move, including Michael Curtis, president of the Brown County Tavern League, who views the proposed BAC lowering as blackmail. According to Curtis, the federal government is forcing state governments to adopt the .08 BAC level by threatening to withhold federal highway funding.
Fred Janssen of Green Bay views the tie-in of federal funding to the state's legal blood-alcohol level as the federal government making a law on the state level.
"They're using coercion to get the states to go along with what's right," said Janssen. "I'd like a shirt that says 'I'm not a drunk, but .08 will make me one.'"
Ryan Farrell of Green Bay thinks the national government is imposing its will on Wisconsin, but all he has to do is look at what is happening on local highways, and he understands why the state would comply.
"With how much construction is going around Green Bay, someone has to pay for it," he said.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, if Wisconsin passes the conforming legislation handed down by the federal government before July 15, the state will be eligible for $3.17 million of incentive funds and will receive its full share of federal highway funding for the coming fiscal year.
In 1998, the federal government enacted a law giving states the opportunity to receive incentive funds if a .08 BAC level was met; however, because Wisconsin has not abandoned .10, the state has missed out on $15 million.
If the July 15 deadline is missed, Wisconsin can receive full highway funding in the 2004 fiscal year if conforming legislation is passed by Sept. 30. The penalty for not enacting a .08 BAC this year will be a 2 percent withholding during 2004, and an additional 2 percentage points withheld every year until 2007, when the loss will cap at 8 percent.
Wisconsin will lose approximately $8 million in 2004 and more than $38 million in 2008, standing to miss out on $125 million of federal highway funding over the course of five years. By 2008, Wisconsin would lose $143.5 million by remaining at the .10 blood-alcohol level.
The upshot of this is federal withholdings will be returned as long as the .08 blood-alcohol level is enacted within four years of the initial withholding. If Wisconsin passes the law in 2007, all federal withholdings will be returned for the 2004 fiscal year forward; however, if the law is passed in 2008, the 2004 funding will be lost.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation supports the change to .08, according to WisDOT attorney Joe Maasson.
Local law-enforcement officials support the change, too.
Bill Galvin of the Green Bay Police Department says the shift to .08 BAC would allow officers to ticket cases of careless driving that previously went without penalty.
"Before, we would pull people over who were driving erratically, but would be unable to ticket them (because their BAC level was .08 or .09)," said Galvin.
Any increase in ticketing, Galvin added, will result from the same police observations of suspected drunken driving, not a concerted effort to seek out people who fall into the .08 or .09 BAC category.
Green Bay police Lt. Mark Lurquin said the average blood-alcohol level for suspected OWI violations is between .20 and .21, but careless driving does occur at the .08 and .09 level.
"Where (a .08 or .09 BAC level) makes the difference is in the casual drinker's ability to maintain coordination and ability to drive safely," he said. "At that level of intoxication most people do not react effectively while driving."
Lurquin added, "The Green Bay Police Department sees maybe one or two .08 or .09 returns every month. Most of these come from crashes. (Initiating a .08 BAC) will make a difference in being able to convict people falling in that area."
Even though .10 is the designated blood-alcohol level for OWI conviction right now, a person can receive an OWI if impaired driving ability is proven in court.
"You can still convict for OWI (less than) a .10 BAC level because you can show (a driver's) ability was impaired," said Lurquin. "Anything over .05 can really have a case made for an OWI violation."
For Lurquin, the move to .08 would not be targeting an entirely new group that would be otherwise exempt from OWI violations; it would simply allow courts to convict people falling into the .08 and .09 range according to a fixed criteria.
Randy Schultz, the patrol captain for the Brown County Sheriff's Department, said the way deputies patrol will remain the same. A .08 BAC level will mean "very little" from an officer's standpoint, he said, because careless driving will be addressed as it was before.
"We enforce by behavior," Schultz said. "We need to see a behavior that gives us reasonable suspicion."
Contrary to what law-enforcement officials say, however, Tavern League lobbyist Scott Stenger envisions a significant change resulting from a .08 blood-alcohol level.
"Our opposition comes from the fact that it seems misguided," said Stenger. "Last year, 1.5 percent of the arrests were .08 or .09 BAC. It seems to me that we should be targeting the other 99 percent."
By abandoning the .10 BAC level, Stenger says Wisconsin is seeking out the social drinker, when the real solution is to avoid putting "a stigma on someone who wants to enjoy a casual beverage."
"I don't know why the state doesn't say, 'We are not going to tolerate or allow repeat offenders,'" said Stenger.
Kerry Counard, owner of The Abbey in De Pere, sided with Stenger when he said, "I think they're chasing the issue from the wrong direction. The habitual offenders are the problem. They're chasing the social drinkers, in which case they might as well make it .00."
According to WisDOT, on average, a 180-pound male would reach a .10 blood-alcohol level by drinking 5.5 drinks in one hour; he would reach .08 with 4.5 drinks in one hour. A 140-pound female needs approximately four drinks in one hour to reach .10 BAC; she would reach .08 with three drinks.
WisDOT acknowledges its calculations are simply guides for finding BAC levels and not absolute claims; however, using this general method of calculating BAC levels, the person intending to go out to dinner and have one or two drinks does not need to worry about exceeding .08 BAC.
As Galvin said, "This doesn't mean that the person having one or two drinks per hour should be worried about drunk driving. I don't think this will hurt your social drinker."
Jim Wilson, owner of Cafe Espresso, sympathizes with law-enforcement officials despite the fact that restaurants are conducive to social drinking.
"As a provider of spirited beverages, it's not going to affect me much because (Cafe Espresso) is more of a restaurant than a bar," said Wilson. "(Adopting a .08 BAC level) is a good thing overall; there have been too many deaths."
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