Letters to the Editor
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‘Spitzer’s Tax Dodge’
In regard to your editorial [“Spitzer’s Tax Dodge,” September 27, 2006], the majority of New Yorkers support strengthening the Bottle Return Law because it works. The original Bottle Bill has led to greater recycling rates and cleaner neighborhoods — at no cost to taxpayers. The Bigger Better Bottle Bill (BBBB) would expand the current law to include the non-carbonated beverage containers that are so common in today’s market.
Calling a 5-cent returnable deposit a “tax” is way off base. The BBBB offers an incentive that works. Right now 70% of the beer and soda containers sold in New York are returned and recycled because of the 5-cent deposit, while only 20% of all non-deposit containers get recycled.
The BBBB will increase recycling and generate revenue for the state in the process. While currently, beverage corporations are keeping unclaimed deposits, the new BBBB would put unclaimed deposits into an environmental protection fund to benefit New Yorkers. The Bigger Better Bottle Bill is not a tax. It is a necessary improvement to a wildly successful public policy that will return unclaimed deposits to benefit those who deserve them, the citizens of New York.
TYLER HARTSHORN
New York, N.Y.
‘Spitzer’s Tax Dodge’
Regarding Mr. Spitzer’s tax dodge [“Spitzer’s Tax Dodge,” September 27, 2006], one only needs to keep in mind that some of the products that Mr. Spitzer is not planning to tax are from our very own backyard.
Apple juice, presumably a significant portion of which comes from upstate New York (Appalachia), and Concord grape juice, also from upstate Appalachia.
A suggestion: To enhance our friendship with India, perhaps we could initiate a new tax on tea! Possibly, however, this was tried once before.
Perhaps it is not Mr. Spitzer’s aim to increase tax revenue through those of us that need water to survive and juice to live, but to simply depress further an area of New York State that is primed for renewal.
STEVEN GIOVANELLI
Astoria, N.Y.
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