As Massachusetts legislators return to Beacon Hill this week for the second half of the session, some huge and controversial issues await them: casinos, energy policy, biotechnology, and a billion-dollar budget deficit.
Not to mention whether to impose a one-year prison sentence for repeat milk-crate thieves. Require that all restaurant bathroom doors open outward to control germs. Ban gas stations from setting prices ending in 9/10 of a cent to make fuel look cheaper. And order the Registry of Motor Vehicles to issue Dexter Olsson of Plymouth a replacement for his family-heirloom 1620 Massachusetts license plate that was stolen five years ago.
Those are some of the more offbeat measures among 3,000-plus bills still wending their way through the legislative process as the 185th General Court of the Commonwealth gets back to business.
Representative Michael F. Kane, a Holyoke Democrat, is pushing for the crackdown on milk-crate thieves, or, translated into legislativese, anyone who "intentionally removes a plastic bulk merchandise container that is used by a product producer, distributor, or retailer or agent thereof which is used as a means for the bulk transportation, storage, or carrying of retail containers of milk . . . with the intention of permanently depriving the merchant of the possession, use, or benefit of such container."
Inspired by complaints from several retailers and dairy suppliers, Kane said, his bill would set a sliding scale of fines for first, second, and third offenses, all the way up to $1,000 and a year in prison for stealing more than $100 worth of crates.
"These crates have been used for many years in college dorms for basically storage and furniture," Kane said. "Obviously, I don't want to see any college students going to jail over this, but it is becoming a cost to the industry." Kane is hoping the measure will come up for a hearing in the Judiciary Committee this winter.
Fed up with service stations that sell gas for sneaky-sounding prices like $2.999 a gallon instead of an honest $3, Representative Christopher G. Speranzo, a Pittsfield Democrat, wants to require that gasoline be priced to the nearest penny, like virtually every other product.
"It's a one-sentence bill to strike a blow for consumer transparency," Speranzo said. The Energy Committee heard the bill last May, but has not acted on it.
Among the 50 states, one nearly unique feature of the process in Massachusetts is the "right to free petition," in which any citizen can submit a bill to the Legislature; with a lawmaker's backing, it can be taken up formally.
One such bill came from Douglas R. Flavin of Bellingham, who got his representative - James Vallee, a Franklin Democrat - to sponsor his measure requiring that doors to bathrooms in restaurants and other public facilities open outward. The arrangement would ensure that people who have just washed their hands after using the facilities could push the door open with an elbow or knee, instead of having to put their clean hand on a potentially dirty doorknob. The bill got a hearing in June by the Committee on State Administration and Regulation, but has not moved since.
Faring far better on Beacon Hill is Olsson, the Plymouth man whose family for three generations had owned the automobile registration plate numbered 1620, the year that the Pilgrims arrived in town. The Registry and the Plymouth Police Department have been balking, because the old plate was never recovered and could still be used illegally.
But Olsson's representative, Viriato Manuel deMacedo, took up his cause in a special bill. Late last year the Senate - led by Olsson's fellow Plymouth resident, President Therese Murray - voted to order the Registry to give Olsson a new 1620 plate and let him transfer it in his will to a family member. The measure is now just a few parliamentary steps away from a House vote and going on to Governor Deval Patrick to sign.
Another bill progressing toward enactment - filed by Representative Louis L. Kafka, a Sharon Democrat - requires that any store offering a used mattress, box spring, or futon pad for resale label it as previously purchased. Kafka got the idea one night in late 2006 watching a Jordan's Furniture television advertisement.
Venerable store pitchmen Barry and Eliot Tatelman explained that Massachusetts law allows retailers to take back a mattress up to 30 days after purchase and resell it, and less scrupulous retailers have no obligation to reveal that the seemingly new mattress had been slept on or worse.
"My reaction was: Wow, that's pretty disgusting," Kafka said.
With no opposition, his bill was approved by the House last month and sent to the upper chamber. If it is enacted, Kafka said, he will gladly share credit.
"I'd call it Barry's law," Kafka said. "Or Eliot's law. Whatever they want."
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.
