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Advocates: Bottle bill expansion could be approved

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 7, 2009 04:14 PM

By David Abel, Globe Staff

Every legislative session for the past 15 years, state lawmakers have proposed bills to expand the bottle law, the 5-cent deposit fee for carbonated sodas, beer, and malt beverages. But the bills have died each time before ever getting a committee vote.

This year may be different.

Advocates say the Patrick administration’s increasingly vocal support, pressure from municipalities, and plummeting state revenues all make it more likely that the 28-year-old law will finally win approval to include bottled water, juices, and sports drinks, which now account for about one-third of beverages sold in Massachusetts. The administration estimates the state would raise about $58 million by allowing the redemption of an additional 1.5 billion containers a year, or about $20 million more than the state earns from the current law, and that municipalities would save as much as $7 million in disposal costs.

Advocates also cite the momentum of the recent expansion of bottles laws in New York and Connecticut.

More importantly, they say, the politics are increasingly favorable. A new co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, which has jurisdiction over the bill, once co-sponsored similar legislation to expand the bottle law. Also, a majority of committee members say they support the legislation.

After a packed hearing on the bill today at the State House, Senator Michael Morrissey, a Quincy Democrat who co-chairs the committee and has long opposed expanding the bottle law, added to their optimism when he promised the bill will get a vote this session.

“There will be a lot of discussion,” he said. “But the bill will get a vote.”

Morrissey’s new co-chairman, Representative Barry Finegold, this session replaced Representative Brian Dempsey, a Haverhill Democrat, who helped quash previous bills.

“The previous chair was a definite no; I’m not a definite no,” said Finegold, an Andover Democrat, who acknowledged his previous support of expanding the law. “I am open, and I’m listening to all sides.”