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12/17/2009
Passing OWI legislation was a really bad idea
Ok. So bringing down an ever bigger hammer on OWI drivers, SB 66, was the thing to do yesterday. As Rep. Josh Zepnick dared his peers, “You’d almost have to be living under a rock to not understand the ramifications of this problem in our society.”
But there’s a huge problem with this particular motherhood and apple pie.
You see, it’s not paid for.
Regardless of what you’ve heard from your representative or the media, it’s absolutely not paid for. SB 66 is the perfect study for perfectly horrid governing. Bring on a new program. Don’t fund it adequately, knowing its costs are going to double and triple and quadruple and more. Oh my.
Yes, it’s a very emotional issue and passed almost unanimously through our esteemed state legislature (unanimously in the Senate, 93 to 1 in the Assembly).
I understand the horrific results of over imbibing and driving drunk in our society. I’m sure I don’t understand it like a spouse who is beaten regularly by a drunken mate or by those left to grieve the death of a loved one killed by a drunk driver (Rep. Zepnick’s sister was killed by a drunk driver 19 years ago). But yes, I get it. I get it in neon lights.
I also get that it would have taken lots of guts to vote against this bill. “You’re not in favor of getting drunk drivers off the street?” Well, of course I am. But this bill doesn’t do that.
Rep. Marlin Schneider, the only elected official with guts (or whatever…) enough to vote against SB 66, said it this way.
So you may think this is going to be some wonderful thing, some wonderful bill that’s going to solve the drunk driving problem… But I guarantee you this… there will be a new group of legislators here again [in six or seven years] and there will be another horrendous OWI offense that occurs… and there will be another bill by another legislator who says ok now we’re going to make a 2nd offense a felony – and thinking that that will indeed solve the problem. Well, this bill isn’t going to solve the problem..... [E]ven if I’m the only one here, my vote on this bill is going to be No because it’s not going to make any difference at all.
Whether or not you think SB 66 will make a difference on our highways and city streets, be assured it will make a huge difference in our correctional institutions and in the budget.
Here are the numbers for the bill, that should the governor sign it (I can’t imagine he won’t), will take effect July 1, 2010.
- For July 2010 through June, 2011, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates (depending on incarceration assumptions used) annual added corrections costs alone will be $17.9 to $20.3 million.
- In their wisdom, the bill’s writers raised fees $10.2 million to pay for a new $17.9+ million program. So already from the start, the new program doesn’t pay for all of the new costs it incurs. Does that make sense?
And be aware… most of the new revenue is funded from huge fee increases for all criminal cases. ALL criminal cases, whether or not they have a twit to do with drunk driving.
There’s more. Per Rep. Kaufert (who complained loudly about the bill, but nevertheless voted for it), 58% of these fees go unpaid. So, these guys (and gals) are trying to pay for a new $17.9 million program with now about $4.5 million worth of revenue. How does that compute?
And even that’s not the worst of it. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates that once this program gets going, annual costs (depending on assumptions) will range from $50 million to $84.5 million.
Wow, wow and wow.
Presto!!! Tons of brand new spending. Now if you or 130 legislators think this bill is so very critical, fine and great. But then, you must prioritize. You must find another state program that you can deem less important than SB 66, from which you can eliminate services to the tune of $70 or $80 million a year. Now, can you guess the chances of that happening?
What happens instead? Legislators and Wisconsinites lament waste and fraud or some such thing, slash school spending and underfund brand new BadgerCare Plus. And the state has huge deficits and you have huge increases in your property tax bill.
All in a day’s work when this is the way your representatives respond to our emotional clamor and pass legislation they know they can’t darn pay for. I could scream.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Safety and Security! It was and still is the case that all you need to do to pry more dollars from taxpayers is cry "it will make us safer" This includes new police stations, fire stations, and Homeland security white elephants. So maybe each jurisdiction should cut their local budgets just a bit and pay for this bill. With fewer drunk drivers on the road there is less for local law enforcement to do. We all are a bit safer. Another idea would be stop enforcing marijuana possession laws. The savings on the local and statewide level would be more than enough to pay for the impact of this law.
dave allen (Thu Dec 17 06:45:28 2009)
Even better than cutting services to those of us who are NOT the problem, how about paying for this by taxing the likely candidates who will be creating the additional burden on society? (Pre-pay, sort of like Edvest if you will.)
Divide 85 million by the number of beers sold in the state each year, and there you have it - there it is!
Wait! Taxing beer by a buck each could kill the tavern industry!
Exactly ... and then who's driving drunk, and who's ending up in prison?
Problem solved.
(By the way - I'm NOT an abolitionist, and yes - I do enjoy adult beverages from time to time. AT HOME.)
Jeff Riedl (Thu Dec 17 07:54:42 2009)
Obviously the private correctional institutes ... that make profits by locking more people up ... had more clout than the pro-drinking groups. I wonder why?
Jack Lohman (Thu Dec 17 10:37:23 2009)
I agree 100% with Jeff Riedl. We need OWI reform and we need to pay for it. Increasing the beer and booze tax by a small percentage while increaseing the fines and court cost of those convicted of OWI would have a gone a long way to making this bill better. I don't believe in no drinking, but those who do need to take responsibility for the effects. The beer and booze tax has not been increased in years...about time it was.
Dale McNamee (Fri Dec 18 14:18:30 2009)
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