By
Eric Swedlund
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Senate easily passes bills lowering limits
PHOENIX - The state Legislature's movement toward tougher DUI standards is quickening.
Two bills aimed at lowering drunken driving and extreme drunken driving limits took another step forward in the Senate yesterday.
The Senate passed SB 1137, which would lower the extreme DUI limit from 0.18 to 0.15, by a 27-3 vote. Sen. Lori Daniels, R-Chandler, Pete Rios, D-Hayden, and Tom Smith, R-Phoenix, cast the dissenting votes.
A bill lowering the extreme DUI limit to 0.15 passed the House of Representatives Transportation Committee 8-0 Monday. The committee also passed a measure that would lower the DUI limit to 0.08 by a 9-1 vote.
SB 1089, which would lower the presumption level for DUI to 0.08 from 0.10, passed yesterday through the Committee of the Whole and will go before the full Senate next week.
Sen. Andy Nichols, D-Tucson, the second bill's sponsor, said the lower limit is supported by both the public and law enforcement.
"The police are virtually unanimous in saying we want 0.08, and we want it now," he said.
Rios said he opposed the bill because the potential fiscal impact is unknown.
"Clearly, if we are going to be stopping and arresting more people for DUI, clearly, we will be sending more people to jail," Rios said.
An amendment proposed by Daniels would have postponed the implementation of the bill until July 1, 2003.
Nichols said delaying would cost Arizona $2.3 million a year in federal incentives and, in the estimation of experts, about 12 lives a year.
The Committee of the Whole voted 18-12 against Daniels' amendment.
Another amendment, proposed by Sen. Jack Jackson, D-Window Rock, would require the DUI Abatement Council to gives grants to tribal governments that apply and expand the DUI Abatement fund to include alcohol abuse treatment services.
