DWI laws to get close look at the Capitol

By ASHLEY H. GRANT

Associated Press Writer

ST. PAUL (AP) -- Minnesota's drunken driving penalties will get a closer look in the first full week of the 2001 legislative session.

House Crime Prevention Committee Chairman Rich Stanek and others are planning a full-steam effort again this year to push through legislation that would reduce Minnesota's blood-alcohol threshold for drunken driving.

On Monday, Millie Webb, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, will visit the Capitol to help build support for lowering the threshold from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent.

''It's like Charlton Heston coming here for the NRA,'' said Stanek, who is also a Minneapolis police captain.

Webb lost her 4 1/2-year-old daughter and 19-month-old nephew and suffered a broken neck and burns over 75 percent of her body in an auto accident 28 years ago. That accident was caused by a driver whose blood-alcohol content was 0.08.

Minnesota is one of 31 states that define drunken driving as 0.10 percent blood alcohol content or do not set a specific standard.

Webb ''sees that we're right on the brink'' of lowering the limit to 0.08 percent, said Stanek, R-Maple Grove. According to MADD, a 137-pound woman would reach 0.08 percent after about three drinks in an hour.

The House and Senate both passed 0.08 percent bills last session, but they got hung up in conference committee.

President Clinton signed a bill in October setting a national 0.08 percent standard for drunken driving, saying the new legal limit would save 500 lives a year and force Americans to take more care when they drink.

The bill signing climaxed a fierce three-year battle in Congress.

States that refuse to impose the standard by 2004 will lose millions of dollars in federal highway construction money. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have a 0.08 percent limit.

''There will be some legislators saying we don't need to be in any hurry,'' Stanek said. ''Some will say we don't need to change the law at all.''

Rep. Matt Entenza thinks the law will pass this year, but not easily.

''It's always tough when the liquor lobby is fighting on the other side,'' said Entenza, DFL-St. Paul. ''They have huge, huge financial resources.''

Gov. Jesse Ventura has said he favors zero tolerance for drunken drivers, but believes the federal government shouldn't mandate a threshold.

According to the Department of Public Safety, 62 percent of Minnesota's 172 drinking-related fatal crashes in 1999 involved drivers with no previous alcohol convictions, 35 percent involved drivers with one to three prior drunken-driving convictions and only 3 percent involved drivers with four or more such convictions.

But those 3 percent cause a large number of problems, Stanek said. That's why the House Crime Prevention Committee will get an overview of the 0.08 bill and of a separate felony DWI bill on Tuesday.

The House and Senate passed felony DWI bills separately last year, but they didn't make it out of joint committee because of the possible costs of extra prison beds.

Instead, the Legislature formed a working group to look at the issue and report back to the Legislature this year. That report will be given during Tuesday's meeting.

''The reality of the felony DWI is it comes down to money,'' Entenza said. ''There's almost universal support for the concept.''

The bill Stanek is sponsoring this year would make a fourth drunken driving offense in 10 years a felony, punishable by one to five years in a state prison. Most people would serve about eight months and undergo chemical dependency treatment, then be on probation for the rest of their sentence, he said.

At least one other piece of legislation dealing with alcohol is expected to come up during the 2001 session. It would require businesses that sell kegs to register them when they are checked out and keep those records.

Many committees are waiting to tackle serious issues until after Gov. Jesse Ventura releases his budget Jan. 23.

''The State of the State is kind of the kickoff,'' said House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty. ''There's going to be a bit of a timeout until we get the budget books.''

Even then, Pawlenty said it would be difficult to press ahead in force until the February revenue forecast is released.