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SPONSOR: |
Altamirano |
DATE TYPED: |
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HB |
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SHORT TITLE: |
Commercial Driver’s License Changes |
SB |
262/aSPAC |
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ANALYST: |
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APPROPRIATION
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Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
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FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
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See Narrative |
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Duplicates SB 242 & HB 250.
Relates to other bills amending the same
section of the law.
Responses
Received From
State
Highway and Transportation Department (SHTD)
Taxation
and Revenue Department (TRD)
Department
of Public Safety (DPS)
Administrative
Office of the District Attorneys (
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of SPAC Amendment
The Senate Public Affairs Committee amendment
removes all references dealing with the creation of a presumption that a person
under twenty-one years of age is intoxicated with a blood or breath
alcohol concentration of .02. In
addition, the SPAC amendment removes the newly added requirement that a breath
test machine certified by the scientific laboratory of DOH is presumed to
measure the breath sample based of the grams of alcohol in two hundred ten
litters of breath.
The SPAC amendment also removed the discretion
given to TRD to hold hearings related to SB 262 on the telephone.
Synopsis
of Original Bill
Senate Bill 262
provides sanctions for drivers of commercial motor vehicles who have been convicted
of railroad highway grade crossing violations and adds additional requirements
for railroad/highway crossings. Additionally, SB 262 increases the penalties
for violating out-of-service orders. SB
262 also establish per se DWI violations for individuals driving a commercial
motor vehicle at point 0.04 and for individuals less then twenty-one years of
age at .02
Significant
Issues
SB 262 brings
The intent of SB 262 is to reduce all motor
vehicle related crashes, injuries, and deaths by requiring higher standards for
drivers with commercial drivers licenses.
The only portion of SB 262 not required by federal law is the section allowing TRD to conduct administrative license revocation hearings telephonically.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
If
SB 262 is not enacted, the state will face the loss of $8.4 million of
In
addition there is the potential loss of approximately $5.6 million from the
Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program as well as other sanctions.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
The loss of funds and sanctions imposed would have a very negative impact on SHTD, DPS and the Motor Vehicle Division of TRD.
DUPLICATION/RELATIONSHIP
SB 262 duplicates SB 242 &
HB 250.
SB 262 amends the same section of law, 66-8-102, as HB
40, HB 117, HB 139, HB 189, HB 249, HB 327, HB 335, HB 405, SB 16, SB 93, SB
99, SB 248, SB 261, SB 245, SB 266, and SB 341. All of these bills relate to
DWI, but do not have conflicting language with SB 262.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
DPS notes the language in Section 10, page 8, paragraph C, paragraphs 1 thru 3 attempts to establish per
se blood alcohol concentration violations.
Unfortunately in Section 12 of the amendment to NMSA Section 66-8-110,
the drafter reinserted language removed previously with respect to
presumptions. When a per se limit is
established, any language in the statute with respect to presumptions must be
removed because presumptions destroy the effect of the per se language in the
statute. Presumptions can be rebutted.
Per se limits are by definition are not supposed to be able to be
rebutted. Per se language and
presumptive language are incompatible.
DW/sb