LePage threatens outright ban if lawmakers pass 'nips' deposit bill

COURTESY / MATTHEW GAGNON, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Gov. Paul LePage warned lawmakers on Tuesday that if the Legislature approves a bill extending the state's deposit law to include 50-milliliter alcohol containers he'd work to ban all sales of "nips" in the state.

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By Staff

Gov. Paul R. LePage told lawmakers Tuesday that if they approve a bill extending the state’s bottle deposit law to include the 50-milliliter alcohol containers he’d work to ban all sales of “nips” in the state.

LePage issued the following statement in response to the Legislature’s initial votes on LD 56:

“Legislators say they want to prevent the littering of empty ‘nip’ bottles, but they do not care if it cuts funding to other state programs or increases costs for companies that do business here. “Sen. [Tom] Saviello said he would call my bluff that I would delist 50-milliliter ‘nip’ bottles if this bill passes. A Maine legislator should know better than that. If this bill is passed, I will veto the bill, and I will instruct the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations to begin working immediately with the Liquor and Lottery Commission to delist all nips from sale in Maine. I do so with regret, but the severe impact of this bill leaves me no choice.”

Sen. Saviello, R-Wilton, is co-chairman of the Legislature’s Environmental and Natural Resources Committee. The bill was approved in an initial 111-34 vote by the Maine House of Representatives on May 9 and in a 32-3 vote by the Maine Senate on Tuesday.

LePage’s statement reported that the Maine Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations already has informed agency liquor stores that de-listing of nips could likely result from the passage of this bill.

“If the Legislature is really concerned about litter, delisting nips will ensure that they are not sold in Maine, and fewer of them end up as litter,” LePage said. “We will also then know that discarded nip bottles are coming in from out of state.”

Bill would require renegotiation of 'spirits contract'

A fiscal note attached to the bill indicates that the nips bottle redemption program would require renegotiation of the state’s “spirits administration contract” with Pine State Trading Co., estimating that would cost an additional $1 million in 2017-18 and $1.3 million in 2018-19.

“It is anticipated that the Alcoholic Beverages Fund will have sufficient revenue to fund the additional allocation for the foreseeable future,” the fiscal note stated. “However, the additional expenditures from the fund may put required future payments to the Maine Municipal Bond Bank at risk.”

LePage took issue with that funding approach, stating that it diverts revenue within the state's liquor contract, “proceeds of which are used to fund drinking water programs and roads and bridges, as provided in statute.”

“This is yet another anti-business vote that threatens jobs, increases costs to do business and puts the state’s financial health at risk,” LePage said.

Saviello told the Bangor Daily News his committee settled on the expansion of the state’s deposit law to include nips as a way to solve two problems: littering and driving under the influence.