DRUNK DRIVING - S.B. 953 (S-1): FLOOR ANALYSIS

Senate Bill 953 (Substitute S-1 as reported)

Sponsor: Senator William Van Regenmorter

Committee: Judiciary

CONTENT

The bill would amend the Michigan Vehicle Code to do the following:

-- Include commercial vehicle drunk driving, negligent homicide, manslaughter, or murder resulting from the operation of a vehicle, and drunk driving with a child in the vehicle, in provisions that require the Secretary of State to deny or revoke a license based upon prior convictions.

-- Require an arresting officer to confiscate a vehicle's registration plate and issue a temporary plate, if the officer arrested a person who was involved in an accident or was found in the driver's seat of a parked vehicle intruding on the highway, or arrested a person based on a preliminary chemical breath analysis, and the person had a previous conviction within seven years for operating under the influence (OUIL), operating while impaired (OWI), OUIL or OWI causing death or a serious impairment of a body function, OUIL or OWI with a child under 16 in the vehicle, operating a commercial vehicle while intoxicated, or negligent homicide, manslaughter, or murder resulting from the operation of a vehicle.

-- Allow a court to order, as a condition of a restricted license, that a vehicle be equipped with a device that made it inoperable based upon a person's bodily alcohol content.

The bill would take effect May 1, 1998, and is tie-barred to Senate Bills 268, 269, 271, 625, 626, 627, 870, 989, 990, and 991.

MCL 257.303 et al. - Legislative Analyst: S. Lowe

FISCAL IMPACT

Senate Bill 953 (S-1) would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on State and local government.

To the extent that the proposed legislation would not add or increase the penalty for a felony or misdemeanor, the cost of incarceration and/or the receipt of fine revenue would be unchanged. To the extent that this bill is tie-barred to other legislation that would include additional and increased penalties, the legislation would indirectly increase costs and/or revenues for State and local government.

Further, the Department of State would incur additional administrative costs and technical computer programming costs due to a provision requiring issuance of temporary plates. Of the approximately 7,000,000 licensed drivers, 370,000 drivers had their licenses suspended or revoked in 1997. Currently, there are no data available that indicate how many more people would fall under the purview of the increased penalties of the tie-barred bills or how many would receive temporary plates due to drunk driving convictions.

Date Completed: 3-9-98 - Fiscal Analyst: K. Firestone

- E. Limbs

floor\sb953 - Analysis available @ http://www.michiganlegislature.org

This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.