House File 3200 the so called “Bottle Bill” would require a deposit fee to be added to bottled and canned beverages sold at both on- and off-sale. This bill could also force redemption centers on our licensees. We would be “incentivized” to have kiosks for the general population to have the ability to redeem their cans at our businesses for reimbursement.
We strongly oppose this bill. MLBA’s Executive Director, Tony Chesak testified against this bill yesterday along with a long list of opponents in the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee. Click here to see the video of the hearing.
All wholesalers that deliver us canned and bottled products would be forced to participate in this program that would include an extremely expensive buy-in to an association that would manage these redemption kiosks. This would include ALL craft breweries and wineries that self distribute. These “wholesalers” would pay for original deposits. Then the retailer would incur that added cost and more than likely, pass those fees onto the customer.
It’s bad for retail and bad for the consumer!