Right now, in Missouri, the blood alcohol content for being arrested as a drunk driver is .10, even though all the evidence shows that a driver is substantially impaired at the .08 level.An analysis of the first five states that lowered the blood alcohol
limit to .08 revealed significant decreases in fatal crashes related to alcohol in four out of the five. The tremendous toll in human life and suffering our higher blood alcohol content law is causing should be more than sufficient reason to lower the
legal limit. And federal authorities are also sending us a signal of how important they feel this issue is. We are losing federal incentive money for our highways by not adopting .08. We would be receiving an additional $3 million every year now. If we
don’t pass a .08 law by October 1, 2003, we will be paying a sanction in the neighborhood of $8 million-a penalty that increases to $32 million in 2007 if we still haven’t passed the bill. Let’s make it happen this year.
Source: State of the State speech in Missouri House Chambers
Jan 30, 2001
Supports flexible federal block grants for crime programs.
Holden adopted the National Governors Association position paper:
The Issue
The major crime issues for the 107th Congress will be:
reauthorization of the juvenile justice program, which established a block grant to states for prevention and delinquency intervention programs;
reauthorization of programs in the 1994 crime bill, including the state criminal alien assistance program (SCAAP), a reimbursement program to state and local governments for housing illegal alien prisoners;
the state prison grants program, formally known as the Violent Offender Incarceration/Truth-in-Sentencing (VOI/TIS) grant program, [where states receive funds based on increasing the percentage of prison sentences actually served]; and
the Byrne block grant program, a flexible block grant that states use for innovative crime and illegal drug fighting programs.
NGA’s Position
NGA policy calls for reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (JJDPA)
and supports the underlying principles of the act. However, NGA wants some flexibility in the core requirements, e.g., allowing some accidental contact between adults and juveniles; expanding the hours before removal from 24 hours to 48 hours; holding certain incorrigible juveniles in detention; and relaxing the disproportionate minority confinement record keeping process. The Governors urge maximum flexibility to implement the spirit and purpose of the act.
The Governors support authorization of the juvenile accountability incentive block grant (JAIBG) program.
The Governors also support reauthorization of SCAAP and seek to raise the reimbursement ratio.
For the Byrne block grant program, NGA seeks to continue the current program with flexibility.
For the state prison grants program, NGA seeks to abolish all requirements and have more flexibility, with the state designating the offender population to be served.
Source: National Governors Association "Issues / Positions" 01-NGA10 on Sep 14, 2001
