February 6, 2008
N.H. House Kills Penny Bottle Tax
By NORMA LOVE
CONCORD, N.H. -
A proposed 1 cent tax on beverage containers in New Hampshire is dead.
The extra penny per container would have been charged to wholesalers. The House voted it down Wednesday afternoon despite exemptions for milk, baby formula, wine and liquor. The tax would have applied to soda, juices and bottled water.
Supporters tried to pass the penny off as a small fee that would pay for programs to manage trash and for recycling efforts by the state and communities.
"Pick up your bag from your household waste," said Bristol Republican Burton Williams. "What's mostly in there? Bottles, cans. That's the biggest part of what we're throwing away."
Williams said consumers are paying to throw away trash. The bill simply charges them before they throw, he said.
Opponents had none of it.
"We can put it in a dress. We can put it in a pair of pants, but make no mistake about it, it is a tax," said Londonderry Republican Sherman Packard.
Opponents said it wasn't fair to tax the beverage industry when its products are more likely to be recycled than many others. They said the tax would put New Hampshire businesses at a competitive disadvantage with those from nearby states.
"We don't need to do anything more to help business in other states competing against us," said Merrimack Republican Peyton Hinkle.
New Hampshire's grocers and beverage wholesalers opposed the tax. John Dumais, president of the New Hampshire Grocers Association, testified at a hearing that 40 percent of grocers' sales are to nonresidents. He said the tax would discourage people from surrounding states from coming to New Hampshire to shop.
The beverage industry and grocers formed New Hampshire the Beautiful Inc., a nonprofit trust, in 1983 to help towns with recycling and to help with anti-litter programs as an alternative to bottle-deposit legislation. The program provides about $119,000 in matching grants to towns that need help buying recycling equipment.
Dumas said that if the state adopted a beverage fee, support for New Hampshire the Beautiful would stop.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/02/06/ap4623984.html
