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by Amy Radil
April 25, 2000
Part of MPR's Session 2000 coverage
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AFTER YEARS OF DECLINES in alcohol-related accidents in Minnesota, the most recent statistics showed a disturbing spike in the number of highway deaths caused by drunk drivers. Legislators in the House and Senate responded by passing a law to make a fourth drunk driving conviction in 10 years a felony, punishable by up to seven years in state prison. But neither bill contains money to build more prisons for the approximately 840 drunk drivers every year who would be covered by the new law. The Senate included a provision saying if money isn't approved next year, the bill would expire.
Public Safety Commissioner Charlie Weaver calls the sunset provision a novel legislative technique. "I've never seen the Legislature pass something and say, 'Well, if it's not funded a year from now we were just kidding,'" Weaver says.
Weaver says making repeat DWI a felony would cost $13 million the first year it's in place. State director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Dick Sarafolean, says the Senate language gives politicians the ability to say they voted to get tough on drunk drivers without really solving the problem. "It is starting to look like a soundbite issue," says Sarafolean.
County administrators and sheriffs are also afraid the cost of the tougher law will fall on them. Becker County Sheriff Tom Hunt says he already has more than 100 people waiting to do their time in his overcrowded jail. "The impact on local county jails is going to be insurmountable, it's impossible for us to handle that," says Hunt.
The House version of the bill would mandate a minimum of 180 days in a county jail, plus an additional year in jail if a DWI offender drinks alcohol while on probation. Hunt says the law could reduce his available jail beds by 30 to 40 percent unless the state provides funding or the county raises property taxes.
The maximum time in county jail for a DWI conviction is currently one year, although it's rarely enforced.
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"The impact on local county jails is going to be insurmountable, it's impossible for us to handle that."
- Tom Hunt Becker County Sheriff | |
Republican Rich Stanek of Maple Grove, who's sponsoring the felony DWI bill, says he's not convinced it would create an unfunded mandate for counties, since drunk drivers would not necessarily spend much more time in county jail than current law allows. And he says the importance of getting repeat drunk drivers behind bars is paramount. "When you get to Greater Minnesota or maybe Hennepin County, maybe it will have an impact, but then again I believe in protecting the citizens of this state first and foremost," says Stanek.
Stanek says the Senate seems willing to drop the sunset clause, and the law could take effect next summer, giving the Legislature time to fund it next session. But Commissioner Weaver says there's another wrinkle to resolve: Governor Ventura won't support the law unless full funding of $58 million is approved for a new Bureau of Criminal Apprehension crime lab.
Weaver says the law would mean more work for the already strapped agency. "There's no way he's going to support felony DWI that requires more costs to the BCA in terms of scientists having to go and testify, in terms of agents, in terms of troopers additionally who are out there making more arrests who will have to go to court more often, because people are going to fight these more if it's a felony," Weaver says.
The Senate supports full funding for the building, the House allocated $30 million. DFL Senator Dave Johnson of Bloomington, the Senate sponsor of the felony DWI bill, says he's surprised because the linkage goes against Ventura's stance on deal-making. "For a number of us who have supported the BCA building and think it's time to have a look at felony DWI, it seems to me he ought to evaluate each proposal on its own merits."
Johnson says the BCA lab is in the bonding bill, which is being negotiated in a separate committee, so tying the two together would be difficult. Representative Stanek says he doesn't oppose funding the new facility, but calls Weaver's linking of the two "a stretch." He says his bill is designed to decrease the number of drunk driving arrests which he hopes would mean less work for law enforcement.
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