A Minnesota House panel voted in favor of a bill that puts the state one step closer to a lower drunken driving threshold.

The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation Feb. 24 to lower the state’s blood-alcohol limit for motorists from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

Before the committee approved the bill on a lopsided voice vote, it adopted an amendment to shift about $156,000 a year in drunken-driving fines from the state treasury to local governments. The transfers would apply to fines paid by first-time drunken drivers who register a 0.08 or 0.09 percent blood-alcohol concentration.

The committee also deleted a $1.1 million appropriation in the bill previously approved by the Senate and left the level of funding open. A new amount would be set by one of the four other House committees that will review the bill before it can reach a vote on the floor.

Passage of SF58, sponsored by Sen. Leo Foley, DFL-Coon Rapids, would bring the state in compliance with a federal decree that states adopt the lower limit or lose federal highway dollars. Minnesota is one of only three states (Colorado and Delaware being the others) yet to conform to the federal mandate.

Minnesota’s previous refusal to adhere to the standard could cost the state $100 million in highway dollars by 2007, the newspaper reported. States that adopt the new limit by Oct. 1, 2006, can recover the withheld funds.