Despite his 2006 commitment to “Better Bottle Bill” advocates to allow an expansion bill to be heard on the House Floor, House Speaker Jim Amann once again successfully killed this measure that had been approved by two joint legislative committees (whose members include both House members and Senators), and the Senate. The bill (Senate Bill 01289) was passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, as a similar bill had been in 2005.
The Better Bottle Bill Coalition in Connecticut includes environmentalists, redemption center owners, the Teamsters Union, the CT Conference of Municipalities, and some of the state’s Resource Recovery Facilities and municipal water companies. Many were disappointed that the House Speaker refused to allow a floor vote, stalling the measure by referring it to a minor committee chaired by a state representative with a large soft drink bottling facility in his hometown. Coalition members knew there was enough support for this legislation to win passage had the Speaker allowed the vote to proceed, and apparently, the Speaker did, too.