OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sSB-1082
AN ACT IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION REGARDING A
REDUCTION IN BLOOD ALCOHOL LIMITS FOR IMPAIRED
DRIVING AND BOATING.
Primary Analyst: PM 3/27/23
Contributing Analyst(s): BP, RP, MR, ES
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Judicial Dept. (Probation) GF - Potential
Cost
See Below See Below
Resources of the General Fund GF - Potential
Revenue Gain
See Below See Below
Mental Health & Addiction
Serv., Dept.
Other Fund -
Potential
See Below See Below
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Various Municipalities Potential
Revenue
See Below See Below
Explanation
The bill lowers the blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for impaired
drivers and boaters from 0.08% to 0.05%. To the extent that there are
additional arrests because of this change, the bill results in a potential
cost for probation and a revenue gain from fines, a portion of which are
remitted to the municipality in which the violation occurs. On average,
the marginal cost for supervision in the community is less than $800
1
1
Probation marginal cost is based on services provided by private providers and only
includes costs that increase with each additional participant. This does not include a
cost for additional supervision by a probation officer unless a new offense is 2023SB-01082-R000250-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 2
each year. In FY 22, there was roughly $900,000 in elevated BAC related
fines.
To the extent the bill increases pretrial impaired driver intervention
program referrals and participation, the non-appropriated Pre-Trial
account under the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services
(DMHAS) could experience both increased program fee revenue as well
as increased costs for participants for whom program fees are waived.
For context, the evaluation fee is $150 per person and the alcohol
education component program fee is $400.
The bill will also necessitate state and local law enforcement agencies
to update their policies and training curriculums, but this is not
anticipated to result in a fiscal impact.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to the number of offenses.
anticipated to result in enough additional offenders to require additional probation
officers.