7/1/03-With a deadline approaching and millions in federal highway dollars slipping away, Massachusetts lawmakers reached a compromise June 30 on a tougher drunken-driving law.
The new statute, which took effect immediately, makes a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level proof of intoxication rather than just another piece of evidence for juries to consider.
Massachusetts was the only state without such a law.
Lawmakers rushed H3873 to the governor’s desk later in the day to beat the midnight deadline to avoid losing $2 million in federal highway funds.
The new law will also protect future highway dollars that are projected to reach $54 million over the next four years.
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey signed the bill. Gov. Romney was traveling to the Czech Republic at the time, making Healey the active governor.
The legislation also increases from 120 to 180 days the time that a driver’s license can be suspended for refusing to take a breathalyzer test.

6/3/03-Fearing the loss of $54 million in federal highway dollars, the House unanimously voted May 29 to toughen the state’s drunken driving law.
The Senate and Gov. Mitt Romney have already backed the legislation, which makes a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level proof of intoxication rather than just another piece of evidence for juries to consider.
Massachusetts is the only state in which drivers are not considered impaired if they register a blood alcohol level at or above the legal limit.
Under current law, registering a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher on a breathalyzer test creates “a permissible inference” that a driver was drunk – that then requires the prosecutor to go one step further and prove the driver was impaired. H3873 would remove that burden of proof from prosecutors.
The Bay State has until October to change the law or lose 2 percent – $5.4 million – of its highway money in the fiscal year starting in July. The losses multiply over the next four years to a total of $54 million.
The state can recover the withheld funds if it adopts the stricter rules by 2007.