Free Republic

Calling it “too late” for a legislative solution, proponents of expanding the state’s 5-cent bottle deposit law to more types of beverage containers said they are taking their decade-long fight to the people, filing a ballot petition with the attorney general Wednesday afternoon. Referencing unsuccessful attempts to push the proposal through the Legislature, Janet Domenitz, executive director of MassPIRG, said people who favor adding the deposit to sports drinks, water and other juice drinks have been patient for long enough. “It is time for the citizens’ voices to be heard,” she said standing in front of the state office tower...

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...