Golden and Malliotakis Cite State Assembly Failure to Advance Efforts to Get Repeat Drunk Drivers Off the Streets

Vow to Fight to Get Restored in Final New York State Budget

Albany – State Senator Martin Golden (R-C-I, 22nd District) and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-C-I, 64th District), have issued the following comments regarding the State’s efforts to increase penalties against drunk-drivers, including a provision that would revoke a driver’s license after three DWI convictions. Today, the Senate included a plan to take repeat intoxicated drivers off our streets in their one house budget bill, but the Assembly failed to do so.

Senator Golden and Assemblywoman Malliotakis have been working in partnership legislatively, and in their districts, to gain support for an increase in the criminal penalties imposed upon drunk drivers. In May 2012, the legislators hosted a press conference on

6th Avenue in the wake of a pedestrian death at the hands of a motorist. Drunk driving claims more than 350 lives annually in New York State.

Senator Marty Golden stated, “The Governor’s proposal to stop repeat offenders from driving drunk in New York is very similar to legislation that Assemblywoman Malliotakis and I have been calling for to become law in our state. The Senate has recognized the need to stiffen penalties against those who drive drunk in our one house budget bill, sending a message that this must be the year that we want to do something about it. The Assembly has again failed to address this issue, and in doing so, has failed every New Yorker, who walks and drives, on streets from Brooklyn to Buffalo.”

Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis stated, “Repeat drunk drivers have been and continue to be a chief concern for law enforcement and impose an extreme danger to our society. Repeat offenders tend to drive with the highest blood-alcohol levels and are the main contributors to the drunk driving problem in New York. They account for between one third and one half the DWI arrests each year and the severity of penalties on these criminals must be increased to match the severity of the crime.”

“Senator Golden and I have been pushing similar legislation since 2011 to have driver's licenses revoked after three drunk driving convictions. The Governor included a similar proposal in his budget plan and I am very disappointed in Speaker Silver and the Assembly Democrats for removing it from their budget proposal. I will fight with my colleagues to get this important language restored in the final budget bill,” concluded Assemblywoman Malliotakis.