May 16, 2007
Bottle-deposit bill waylaid in hall
KEN DIXON
HARTFORD — The controversial expansion of the state's bottle-deposit law was at least temporarily sidetracked Wednesday when the Legislature's General Law Committee voted 13-4 against it.
The vote, taken during a brief morning meeting of lawmakers standing outside the House chamber before the day's business, essentially killed the legislation, which passed the Senate last week 26-7.
Supporters of the bill, which would extend the so-called bottle bill to include glass and plastic water and fruit juice drinks that were unforeseen in the original legislation 30 years ago, said they would find a way to bring the issue back as an amendment on another bill.
Sen. Bill Finch, D-Bridgeport, the bill's chief proponent in the Senate, said it was just a temporary setback. "I don't think it's a big problem," he said in an interview outside the Senate chamber. "I remain very optimistic about the passage of the bill."
Rep Richard Roy, D-Milford, who is co-chairman of the Environment Committee with Finch, agreed that the bill would soon get another life as an amendment to a related bill, which would eventually have to be voted on again in the Senate and House.
"It seems like a majority of the committee members were not happy with the bill, so they voted against it," Roy said. "That effectively stopped that bill. However, there is other legislation to which this can be amended, so that we may bring it back."
Roy called the relatively wide margin in the committee disconcerting. "Maybe we'll have to tweak it somewhat to see what we can do," he said.
Opponents of the legislation admitted that even though that particular bill is dead, it's bound to resurface in either the House or Senate in time for joint action before the June 6 adjournment deadline.
Rep. John J. Ryan, R-Darien, a member of the committee who voted against the bill Wednesday, said the concerns among opponents centered on the logistics of expanding the current deposit law.
"I personally think it's a good concept, that we ought to be as environmentally friendly as we can, but people keep raising issues that haven't been addressed by the bill," Ryan said. "Is every store going to be capable of taking the projected wider list of recyclables back?"
The form of the committee meeting, which convened in a noisy corridor outside the House chamber, brought criticism from veteran lawmakers who said the venue brought an archaic, smoke-filled-backroom taste to the issue at a time when more state officials stress the need for openness and transparency.
"This was a small group of legislators who were never enthusiastic about it anyway and they did it as sort of a rugby-scrum committee in front of the hall of the House," Finch said. "I don't think they should be allowed, and not just because of this. You can't hear and it's not the democratic process at its best."
Finch called the legislation "wildly popular" with the public, who see it as a way to combat litter.
"When this bill is called on the floor of the House and people are held accountable in the light of day, not in some little corner of the building here where a few legislators can kill it, when this is held, I am very confident of its passage," said Finch. "If we get a vote, up or down, in the House, this will pass."
Rep. Robert Godfrey, D-Danbury, an assistant speaker of the House who is a veteran parliamentarian, said in an interview that it was referred to the General Law Committee on Tuesday because the committee has purview over commercial and retail issues.
"It can come back as an amendment on almost anything," said Godfrey, who also serves on a Democratic-caucus group that screens all legislation that reaches the chamber.
Rep. Richard O. Belden,R-Shelton, the longest-serving member of the House and the Republican minority's expert on legislative procedure, said Republicans have tried to end the late-session practice of committee meetings being held outside the House.
"We tried to get the rules changed so they couldn't do that kind of vote anymore," said Belden, who believes that all committees should gather in appropriate meeting rooms in the Legislative Office Building in order to do their work in the open.
Rep. Christopher R. Stone, D-East Hartford, co-chairman of the General Law Committee, who voted against the bill, said that the committee reviews legislation that affects consumers, retailers and restaurants. He said he heard from many members of the public who had questions about the bill.
"We have heard from many constituent groups," Stone said, stressing that although many on his committee oppose the bill, it will eventually reach the House floor. "Even though we voted against this, no bill is ever really dead."
Stone said he would favor legislation to expand the state's curbside-recycling program into a so-called single-stream plan, in which people would put a variety of recyclables in one large container on their curbs, doing away with the deposit law in its entirety.
