Come Christmas Eve, underage drinkers will face stiffer penalties.

That's when a new state law aimed at reducing underage drinking and underage public drunkenness goes into effect.

Local lawmakers and law enforcement officials are unsure if the beefed-up penalties will convince people under 21 to skip the parties, starting Monday.

"Hopefully, the higher fines will encourage kids to at least think twice about the consequences," Republican state Sen. Lloyd Smucker said.

The bill, developed with the help of police officials in college towns across Pennsylvania, raises maximum fines for underage drinking from $300 to $500 for a first offense, and subsequent offenses to $1,000.

The prime sponsor, Rep. Jake Corman, who represents State College, says the higher fine is meant to discourage underage drinking and serve as a way for college towns to cover the costs of dealing with alcohol-related crimes.

Lancaster County is home tthree large college campuses, and every member of the county's legislative delegation voted in favor of the bill.

"The statistics show that these types of penalties get kids' attention and may have the potential to alter behavior," Democratic Rep. Mike Sturla said.

Last year, there were 13,959 convictions statewide for underage drinking-related offenses and 27,309 public drunkenness convictions, according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

At the local level, 120 underage drinkers were charged at Millersville University, 11 at Franklin & Marshall College, and 10 at Elizabethtown College, according to statistics provided to the U.S. Department of Education.

Millersville Borough police Sgt. Jeffrey Margevich said heavier fines have the potential to cut down on the number of arrests.

"Certainly increasing penalties have an effect. Now, how much change we see at the local level, I don't know," he said.

Margevich said that the data reported to the Department of Education shows only half the picture.

"Most of the partying goes on off campus," he said. "Our department deals with parties Thursday through Saturday nights throughout the borough."

Pete Anders, chief of Millersville University police, said he doesn't think higher fines are going to stop those parties.

"There are already some heavy deterrents in place for underage drinking, and it still goes on," he said.

Dale Boyer, chief of security at Elizabethtown College, has a similar view: "I've been working in the college environment for more than 25 years, and the kids who are drinking aren't looking ahead to the fines."

The mindset of most students is that they won't get caught, Boyer said.

"To be honest, in many cases it's too easy to write it up as an ordinance violation rather than go through the headache of prosecuting these cases," he said. "If we could eliminate alcohol from college campuses, I may not even have a job."

Boyer said the law is a move in the right direction but most likely won't lead to a significant decline in underage drinking.

Republican state Rep. Dave Hickernell, a graduate of Elizabethtown College, said Boyer may be right.

"But even if it only impacts a handful of kids, we did our job," said the Republican lawmaker, whose district includes the E-town campus.

The financial penalty doesn't seem to be the main concern of students who come before District Judge Joshua Keller, who handles cases in the Millersville area.

"The fines aren't really the main worry. It's how this will affect their record," Keller said. "Especially for the education majors, they worry about how the charges could impact their careers moving forward."

Keller has the ability to place offenders into a program that allows them to have the charge expunged from their record.

Margevich said that while that program has a positive influence, communities are missing out on the fines. The higher penalties could help cover some of the cost to prosecute alcohol-related crimes, he said, but the fines must be enforced.

"When students are able to enter these programs in lieu of paying the fines — that has a dramatic effect on the amount we collect here," he said.

The Senate and House Appropriations Committees' preliminary estimates show the higher fines could generate $6 million in new annual revenue spread across Pennsylvania municipalities.

Smucker, whose district includes Millersville and F&M campuses, pointed out that the public drunkenness fine hasn't been changed since 1972.

Currently, underage drinking violations carry a maximum $300 fine for a first offense and $500 for each subsequent offense. Public drunkenness carries a $300 fine for first as well as repeat offenses. Violators will continue to have their driver's license suspended.

Sturla, whose district covers the F&M campus, said the bigger fines may still not be enough.

"The unfortunate reality is that almost everyone who has been in college has probably done some underage drinking," he said.

The main goal of the law, as Sturla sees it, is to keep kids from getting behind the wheel.

Lancaster County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Gonzalez said Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Statistics reported 4,500 statewide DUI offenses committed by underage drinkers in 2011.

"Any law that could help deter underage drinkers from driving is something I'll get behind," he said.