A tough plan to put the brakes on kids who drink and drive was resurrected Friday by Lake County politicians who hope that it will become state law this year.
State Rep. Robert Churchill (R-Lake Villa) said he expects to reintroduce a bill that would suspend the licenses of teens who drink and drive-even if they have had only a little to drink.
State law currently defines legal intoxication as a blood alcohol content of .10 percent, but Churchill is proposing that limit be even lower-.02 percent-for underage drivers.
“Kids are not supposed to drink and drive,” Churchill said. The law would send a message, he said, that “if we catch them, we will do that one thing that they would hate, and that’s take away their driver’s license.”
A similar bill was introduced in 1993 by Churchill but did not pass.
“Maybe this year we can overcome the objections now that people have had a chance to look at the concept,” Churchill said.
The underage drinking bill is part of a wish list that Lake County leaders would like the General Assembly to pass this year. Lake County leaders presented the legislative package to Churchill and other state legislators on Friday.
As election season looms, legislators are less likely to take risky positions on controversial bills and, as expected, this package contained nothing that smacked of new taxes or controversy.
For example, the package does not contain the gas tax proposal that Lake County County Board Chairman Robert Depke (R-Gurnee) has been pushing for a long time.
County leaders have wanted authority to levy a gas tax that would help fund road programs. But the idea has failed to win support in Springfield in the past and has not had the backing of Churchill, the leader of the county’s Republican delegation.
With the exception of a proposal intended to solve the funding problems of the financially beleaguered Stormwater Management Commission, much of the rest of the county’s legislative package contains mostly touch-up legislation that merely streamlines current laws.
But for the Stormwater Management Commission of Lake County, a proposed measure would allow the agency to take a more active role in solving flood problems in the county.
The proposal would revise state statutes to allow the county to levy fees to support stormwater management agencies.
The Stormwater Management Commission of Lake County currently is funded by property tax revenues, but this measure would replace taxes with the fees. Because of the tax cap, officials say, the commission is unable to pay for the flood-control plans.
