Massachusetts bottle bill update 'a tax,' State Rep. Joseph Wagner says

The Republican ^

[matt04]

The Senate’s unexpected decision to include an expansion of the state’s bottle redemption law in a bill designed to promote job creation and economic development has done little to budge the House from its position that the initiative is a tax.

And the House doesn’t want to raise taxes this year.

“We view it as a tax in the House and the speaker and the House have been clear with their opposition to increases in taxes,” Rep. Joseph Wagner, who was appointed on Tuesday as his branch’s lead negotiator on the economic development bill, told the News Service early Tuesday afternoon.

In light of the House’s position on the bottle bill, Wagner, who helped write the House proposal and co-chairs the Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, went further to suggest that the bottle-bill expansion probably does not belong in bill intended to spur economic growth.

...

While bottle bill update supporters say a majority of House members support the proposal, the initiative has not surfaced for a House vote this session. A chart created by MassPIRG to show support for the bill indicates Ross is the only conference committee member to go on record with that group supporting the bill. The other five conference committee members did not provide their position on the issue when requested to by MassPIRG. Bottle bill update supporters plan a rally outside the State House on Wednesday.

[matt04]

If MassPIRG thinks spending an additional 5 cents per bottle or can purchased, they can give that 5 cents to some environmentalist group every time THEY purchase one. Of course it is not about saving the environment, but forcing people to not by bottled beverages which they consider bad.

[matt04]

Reading the comments, it seems the libs in The People’s Republic assume that every can and bottle not returned, $22 million worth, was tossed out of a car on the road. Did it ever occur to them most were probable tossed in some office recycling can and sent directly to the recyclers as people don’t have time to separate them and feed them one by one into a stupid machine.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

it seems the libs in The People’s Republic assume that every can and bottle not returned, $22 million worth, was tossed out of a car on the road.

And even if they were, this state has an army of illegals and bums who comb the sides of streets and neighborhoods for bottles and cans for redemption. They'll even dig through your trash on trash day.

[Dr. Sivana]

MassPIRG, and all of the PIRG groups, are ACORN-type operations.

[NonValueAdded]

The Massachusetts Bottle Bill has killed someone.

[matt04]

I went to school in MA. One of my favorite pastimes was to annoy the MassPIRG students who always seemed to have a table set up in one building lobby or another looking for members, signatures, etc.

One day they advertised that would be set up outside one of the main academic building the next week for some global warming/high speed rail thing. It snowed. They were forced to move inside. All they could ever do was rattle off the MassPIRG provided talking points. If they didn’t have a talking point they would stammer and ignore you.