Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Sewage treatment industry to propose national tax on bottled
drinks
CLEAN WATER
Greenwire
01/25/2005
Sewage treatment lobbyists plan to approach Congress with a bill that would
create a Clean Water Trust Fund to pay for water infrastructure projects, said
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) President William Schatz.
The AMSA plans to meet with top beverage companies next month to discuss the
proposal.
The AMSA said a national tax on beer and soft drinks would pay for water
projects in the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico. The proposed 6.6
percent tax could raise $10 billion per year, supporters said. AMSA and other
industry representatives have advocated for the tax on all bottled beverages --
with the exception of milk, baby formula, juice and health drinks -- to fill an
annual $23 billion gap between existing funding and what will be needed each
year for the next 20 years to upgrade and build sewer and water systems.
"We think it's a good time to get the debate started, even with a conservative
Congress that will not be interested in initiating new taxes," Schatz said. "No
one wants to pay an additional tax. But on the other side, how do you pay for
these programs? We need a national solution. It can't be done at the local
level."
Environmentalists have said they support the idea. "We have a serious and
growing problem of deteriorating water infrastructure," said Nancy Stoner,
director of the Clean Water Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The water industry has been slower to embrace the idea. "We're not against it,"
said Julius Ciaccia, head of the American Water Works Association utility
council. "The biggest concerns we have is once you put a bill out there, and the
people you are trying to tax lobby against it, and they will, there is some fear
the Congress would institute a water tax on our bills. That's the core fear"
(John C. Kuehner, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 25). -- TE