Leaders scramble to pass DUI bill in Washington

OLYMPIA – In what’s become a battle to beat the clock, a Washington Senate committee on Monday approved a bill to allow felony charges against intoxicated drivers after four or more convictions in seven years.

“We need to get this on the books. We need to do it. Fast,” said bill sponsor Rep. John Ahern, R-Spokane.

The Senate and House have until Thursday – the end of the legislative session – to pass the bill.

Proponents say the change can’t wait. In 2004, 110 people would have qualified for such a felony charge, according to co-sponsor Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor.

“We are all justifiably scared to death of these guys out there driving,” she said.

Some Democratic senators are clearly annoyed, however, about being handed a bill late in the year. Some say the bill is unduly harsh on juveniles; others worry about the cost of housing more prison inmates.

“It took six years for the House to pass it and you want us to pass it in three days?” Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, asked Lantz. Lobbing it over to the Senate now, he said, is like sending over a mortar shell. He voted for the bill, but said it was only “on blind trust” that the House knows what it’s doing.

Sen. Adam Kline compared the rush to a Republican effort on the first day of the session to pass a 120-page sex offender bill with no hearings or amendments. It’s unreasonable to expect the Senate to pass a bill with so little scrutiny, he said.

Proponents note that felony DUI bills are not new in Olympia. This is at least the sixth year in a row that such a bill has been proposed.

“We’ve been kicking this around for years,” said Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley, who urged a yes vote.

The $4 million annual cost, however, is a sticking point for Kline. The state already cannot afford to spend enough on critical programs such as medical care for the poor, he pointed out.

He asked Ahern to name a way to come up with the money to pay for the bill – a new tax, perhaps, or some $4 million-a-year program that could be cut?

“Let me ask you this, Senator: What’s a life worth in dollars and cents?” Ahern said.

“Mr. Ahern, I don’t have an answer for that,” Kline said. “Nobody does.”

“Right,” said Ahern. “It’s priceless.”

About half a dozen people testified in favor of the bill, including Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Jim Reierson and Anita and Leroy Kronvall, a Rathdrum couple whose adult daughter was killed in Spokane Valley a wreck caused by an intoxicated juvenile.

Police and prosecutors associations are backing the bill, as is the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Anita Kronvall says she worries that tension between the parties – like over the sex-offender bill that Kline cited – will threaten the bill’s chances.

“It’s typical partisan politics. I realize that,” she said. “And it shouldn’t be. The drunk driver doesn’t care.”