Lets go back to cigarettes again. In Worcester the cigaretter business has been hurt up North it has been crushed by the latest $1 per pack tax that in the end has resulted in less total tax collections. Why stop there lets move into non-carbonated drinks and add a deposit.
People will say that the cost of these items will only go up .05 per bottle, but that is never the case. There is a cost now to handle and process the empties at both the whole and retail level so the cost will go up more, not to mention the cash that will now be tied up in these deposits. A fair estimate that the cost at the retail level will go up to consumer by about $2 per case, not $1.20 based on a case of 24.
Now lets assume you live in Northern Mass and you could buy a case of water for $8 in New Hampshire or $10 in Massachusetts, what would you do? Proponents will say that you will get you monies back when you bring back the empties but in this case you get $1.2, bring you to $9.20 not $10.00. Bottom line is that this passage will make Massachusetts even more uncompetitive and hurt retail businesses even more.
Here is the dirty rottten secret. For the people who don't return their deposits and simply throw them away, who gets that money. Not the retailers, not the wholesalers but the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Read the article, the Commonwealth expects to collect $20 million in unredeemed deposits.
In summary:
- this is just another tax on the people of Massachusetts
- another blow to the competitiveness of Massachusetts retailers and wholesalers
At least we may be able to collect a toll when people drive across the border to buy their alcohol, cigarettes, lottery and now uncarbonated businesses.
8 comments:
So will the bottle nosed dolphin officially become the state fish ( I know, it's a mammal!!) ?????
:-P
Harry T
Worcester,MA
What's better is that you can buy a can or bottle in NH and pay no deposit, and return in in Mass and get back .05. The return machines only read the barcode, and the barcode is usually the same between states.
I'm curious.
How does the state end up with the money?
Do you send them receipts minus refunds on a periodic basis?
Does the wholesaler?
How many times does my nickle change hands between the time I pay it to you, and return the empty to Austin?
Do you get compensated for the extra labor required to collect and store the empties?
I recall when this was initially implemented back in 1983 and beer wholeslaers started their own company just to collect the empties.....it was called "Mass Crinc" (Container Recovery,Inc.). Guess where the money came from to operate MassCrinc...mostly from the wholesalers......passed onto the ultimate end user...the berr drinker.......and I think back then they got $.01 for handing. Mass Crinc eventually bought the farm. The CEO was a newly retired Army operations guy. The former Truck Lease (a Harr Ford co.) made a small fortune leasing them trucks.
I have to wonder do Al Gore tree huggers ever consider the pollution generated by a large trucking operation to retrieve these empties???
I have bought maybe 2 or 3 cases of beer in COW hAMPSHIRE OVER THE YEARS only b/c I was up that way.......but a smoker and beer drinker that I know used to go ( before the $1.00 cig tax increase in July '08) to Cow Hampshire once a month for brew and butts. No tolls where Rte. 13 crosses over in C.H. from Pepperell......I think it is.
My freind is now retired on Cape Cod..............not sure how or where he satifies his alcohol & nicotine cravings now. I am guessing he comes to Worc regularly to see freinds & family and maybe makes the trip to C.H. then....
And this monring I see Deval giving 4% raises out over 2 years to Mass state 'eees. Deval who is another career gub'mint 'eee is absolutely clueless.
We're going to have civil war sooner or later and it's going to be those who work in gub'mint jobs and quasi' gub'mint jobs (Main SOuth CDC, Genesis House, the jailbirds halfway house on Richard St, etc, etc...)...vs.... those of us in private sector.........the disparity in total compensation has been growing far too much over the last 20 years or so. 80 % pensions are handed out w/o re: to:
a. tHE amt. in ones retirement fund at retirement date
b. life expectancy
c. Expected future rates of return.
These gubmint pensions at tHE mUnicipal & state level are NOT SUSTAINBALE
Probably should keep this to myself, but i have a barcode printer and for years i have been putting "coke" bar codes on non carbonated bottles. The automatic machines just look for the code, and then shred the bottle.
I wonder what would happen if you put a barcode from a Coke can on a glass Snapple bottle.
Doe the machine reject bottles because they are glass, or because they don't have a barcode from a can on them?
BTW, you can use a photocopier instead of a barcode printer. Much cheaper.
ANyone ever see the Seinfield episode when Kramer drives the empties out to Michigan for the .10 cent deposit
From Boston Herald Wednesday 1-27-09
There goes neighborhood
By Richard P. Doyle
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 - Added 18h ago
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As for Mayor Tom Menino and the Boston Redevelopment Authority having concern for “the neighborhood process,” it’s laughable (“Spotlight on Hub garage plan,” Jan. 19). I’m a first-hand victim.
In Brighton’s Oak Square, we were steamrolled by the Menino BRA to rip our green neighborhood into a condo project of $400,000 (at the time) units that a senator described as much-needed low-income housing.
The families tried to make City Hall hear our concerns. The BRA said “done deal.” So after living in Oak Square for most of my 66 years, we were forced to leave. “Neighborhood process” is just Tommy-speak.
Richard P. Doyle,
Marshfield
I would've been surprised if you weren't a Seinfeld fan, Bill.
Yup, I'm sure there's at least one enterprising bottle collector scouring Nashua on a daily basis on trash collection days, scooping up returnable bottles and cans and driving over the border to Massachusetts to redeem them. Just like Newman and Kramer attempted, after figuring out the math...
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