South ABQ News

From  March 16, 2023 post. 

CALL TO ACTION!  COMMUNITY MEMBERS, WE NEED YOUR HELP!  Dear Friends:

Please see the below email regarding legislation that will impact our county DWI programs.

What does this mean locally?

We wouldn’t have nearly enough money to maintain our current level of services, including prevention and enforcement activities.

If you are so inclined, we would appreciate you contacting our local legislators to let them know that this move could be devastating, especially to small programs like ours.

Thank youTracey

Affiliate Members,

We need to act quickly. HB547 passed the Senate 25 to 12 late last night.  

Here is what will happen next:First it has to be read into the House, then they have to do a Concurrence Calendar, then they refuse to concur to the Senate Amendments, then we have to refuse to recede from the Senate Amendments, and then they go to Conference Committee.

You need to reach out to your legislators and advise them of how this will affect your county. We are reaching out to the managers’ affiliate this morning to get them involved as well. I tried to call some of you last night and could only reach a few. I cannot fight this fight alone, I need more than a handful of coordinators to get attention on this. If this passes all the way through and their projected revenue does not come in as calculated, this will be felt in every county. 

Talking points for legislator/leaders↓

• Currently the LDWI fund receives 45% of the State liquor excise tax• The revenue to the LDWI fund is currently 50 million which the LDWI fund receives 22.5 million• The LDWI Distribution and Grant funding is distributed to all 33 counties through a formula and with additional grant available for each if applied for. • Funding covers probation compliance, prevention, treatment, alternative sentencing, law enforcement overtime for DWI, etc. • Grant funding is required to be at least 65% treatment• The original bill reduces the LDWI fund to 37.25% of the liquor excise tax. • The amendment reduces the LDWI further to 23.75%.• Sponsor advises that the revenue will come in high enough to provide $125,000 additional funding to the LDWI fund• It is proposed to raise alcohol taxes – originally to $.25 the amendment reduced the taxes to $.05. There is confusion whether this has been changed to per drink or per liter.• Purpose of raising alcohol taxes is to reduce consumption – creates concern on the projected revenue numbers.• With the reduction in the proposed alcohol tax from the original bill along with reducing the LDWI fund to 23.75%, revenue would have to increase by $46 million to a total of $96 million to keep the current programs whole. If the purpose of raising alcohol taxes is to reduce consumption, we fear the revenue will not prove to be as originally projected. • This reduction will be felt in every local program/county. 

 I have tried to get support in keeping programming at its current funding to LDWI at 45%. In doing so, it would give us time to have an idea of what the changes in revenue dollars will be. This will also ensure the revenue for the DWI programs will not decrease and, if the programs receive more funding, adjust the percentage the following year after we have better knowledge and indication of the changes in revenue. We are in favor of the new fund but would like to see steps taken to ensure the local programs are kept whole. We feel this path is more beneficial than taking a chance at limiting the counties or reducing treatment and prevention services currently being implemented to provide an additional percentage to the new fund. 

Respectfully,Kelly Livingston

Original source can be found here.