The State College Police Department believes pending legislation might increase the number of local arrests for driving under the influence (DUI), but others do not foresee a change in arrest rates if the legislation passes.

The bill, passed Monday by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, would make broad revisions to the state's drunken-driving law if passed by the Senate and signed into law. It would lower the legal blood-alcohol content (BAC) from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent and would create stiffer penalties for repeat offenders.

Lt. Diane Conrad of the State College Police Department said DUI arrests will increase if and when the legislation passes because the department sees many drivers pulled over with BACs in the range of 0.08 to 0.09 percent.

State College has seen a substantial increase in DUI arrests during the past few years, Conrad said. At the end of 2001, police had arrested 297 people on DUI charges, and that number increased to 307 at the end of 2002, she said. As of the end of April, there have been 152 arrests this year, whereas there were only 86 arrests at the end of April last year, Conrad added.

Conrad said DUIs are a serious crime seen frequently in State College.

Evelyn McKee's experiences monitoring Centre County preliminary hearings highlight the crime's regularity in the area. McKee, state organization representative for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in Centre and Clinton counties, said that in her three years of monitoring court cases, a week has not gone by without a DUI hearing. About one of every three cases handled by Centre County Courthouse is for a DUI arrest, McKee said.

However, McKee said she does not believe the number of cases will increase if the legislation is passed because the majority of cases she sees involve BACs significantly higher than the current 0.10 percent limit.

One of the highest BACs McKee has seen in a recent court case measured at 0.3 percent. According to MADD's Web site, www.madd.org, an average 170-pound man must consume more than four drinks in one hour to reach a BAC of 0.08 percent.

In regard to student DUIs, Karin Feldbaum, associate director of the Office of Judicial Affairs, said she does not believe the number of DUI arrests will increase with a decreased BAC level. Judicial Affairs receives all records of off-campus student traffic violations, and Feldbaum says few of those violations have revealed BACs in the 0.08 to 0.09 percent range.

While this assessment is the opposite of Conrad's, it might result from the fact that Feldbaum's information refers only to students. In 2002, about 20 percent of people arrested on DUI charges were students, Conrad said.

The bill now before the Senate comes as part of a federal mandate. It requires states to pass 0.08 percent BAC laws by Oct. 1 or lose 2 percent of their federal highway funds, which would be $11 million in Pennsylvania's case. If passed by July 15, the state would receive a $3 million incentive.

While Sen. Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte, is confident the bill will be signed into law by the October deadline, it is less certain whether the Senate will be able to pass it before July 15. The Senate was in recess until today, and senators are not expected to return to the capitol until next Tuesday by the earliest, Corman said.

Pennsylvania has the largest number of state-owned roads and the most-traveled roads in the nation, Corman said. Those facts, combined with the state's typically bad weather, make federal highway funding especially important for Pennsylvania, he said.

Corman said he has not looked at the legislation yet and was not aware of the July 15 incentive.

"If that's true, we would probably try to beat it," he said.