In New York, there are consequences whether or not someone blew into the breath testing device. There is a general rule that states that a person should not take the test if they believe their blood alcohol content to be a 0.18 or more. The problem with that analysis is that people generally would not know what their blood alcohol content might be prior to blowing into that device, so someone who thought they might have a blood alcohol level of a 0.18 would actually be more than double the minimum legal limit, because the legal limit in the State of New York is 0.08.
While most people would not know what their blood alcohol content might be, they would know how much they had to drink over what period of time. The consequences of taking a breath test is that there would be a breath reading that the person is stuck with, even if it’s defendable. Blowing a 0.08, 0.09, 0.10, 0.11 or 0.12 would be a lot better than blowing 0.13 or higher, because they could get a better possible plea bargain, whereas the higher readings are more problematic in plea bargaining.
A refusal to take the breath test will trigger a Department of Motor Vehicles civil case against them, and make that person subject to a civil penalty of $500, as well as a loss of driving privileges in New York for one year, so there could even be consequences if the person refused the breath test.
There are other consequences for refusal, in that the prosecutor could view the refusal as an aggravating factor which might be used against the person if they went to trial. This would usually be a situation that cannot be changed, since the person would have already made the decision by the time they spoke to their attorney, although they should be aware that the refusal will have to be vigorously defended as well as the criminal case.