Bottle handling fee to get another look Telecommunications, child safety studies set

GARDINER – Surrounded by stacks of bagged bottles and cans, Bob Doherty took a break as business slacked off during a hot afternoon at Tiger Town Discount Beverage and Redemption Center.

Doherty, manager of the business located in a distinct orange-and-black building, said it’s been at least a dozen years since redemption centers saw increases in handling fees of 3 cents per unit.

“Power’s gone up, labor’s gone up and the cost of bags has tripled. The trash, I’ve got to pay extra for that,” Doherty said Monday. “I’d say [handling fees] should go up.”

A proposal to do just that was turned down by the Legislature that adjourned last week, but the redemption centers didn’t walk away completely empty-handed. Lawmakers ordered a study into whether the handling fees should change.

Lawmakers authorized more than a dozen studies covering such diverse issues as telecommunications, child protective services, commercial waterfront and public land access, and hunger in Maine.

Each session, a number of bills seeking substantive changes in state laws are reduced to studies, which provide more background to lawmakers while giving them extra time to decide sticky issues. This year, the Legislature set aside $68,000 to cover the costs of most of the studies.

The $68,000 does not include funding for one of the most prominent studies given the green light this term, one that will look at a health system in Maine in which all residents, regardless of income, would be covered. Its cost shortly before the session ended was pegged at roughly $10,000.

Another study, which will probe Maine’s child protective system, was prompted by the death last Jan. 31 of 5-year-old Logan Marr, who was in foster care at the time. Sally Schofield of Chelsea, the foster mother, has pleaded innocent to charges of murder and manslaughter.

Richard Bennett, Maine Senate president pro tem, sponsored a bill to study whether telecommunications technology, such as fiber-optics and wireless systems, is available to all parts of the state.

“Some communities just seem to be further ahead than others,” said Bennett, R-Norway. The study will try to answer why some communities lack the technology and what the state should do to change that, said Bennett.

A study panel will analyze the costs and benefits of increasing access to Maine’s Family Medical Leave Act, and another will probe the standards of care for mentally ill people who are jailed.

Lawmakers extended the deadlines for some previously authorized studies, such as one to determine the extent of hunger in Maine and another to determine how much snowmobiles, boats and all-terrain vehicles each generate in fuel tax revenues.

How the state, county and municipal governments respond to hazardous releases and spills will be the topic of another study, which like many others is due when lawmakers return next winter.

The bottle study started out as a bill sponsored by Sen. Susan Longley that would have increased redemption centers’ handling fees.

The Liberty Democrat said her proposal stemmed from conversations with handlers in her rural area who pointed out that while their expenses have been rising, the state fixes the per-unit handling fees they receive.

The issue also came up during a hearing on the cigarette butt-deposit bill, which was rejected. A redemption center owner told legislators at the time that butt deposits would give businesses such as hers a badly needed shot of new revenue.

While Longley’s bill drew opposition from bottlers, supermarket chains and distributors, the senator said she was at least able to get the parties involved to look into whether it’s time to adjust the handling fees.