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Stumbo vows renewed effort in next General Assembly
House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo's bottle bill made history this year, advancing in the face of unprecedented, false and misleading advertising by opponents. Stumbo waged a determined battle, proposing a constitutional amendment to permit a bottle bill referendum, after finding the more direct road through legislation blocked.
The constitutional amendment bill passed the house 62 to 27, and came very close to being on the November 2000 ballot.
Legislation to place a refundable deposit on beverage containers became one of the most high profile, intensely fought issues in the legislature this year. But the most interesting aspects of the story may be the road taken toward a bottle bill in Kentucky.
Civics lesson
The story begins in a high school civics class in 1997, where students concerned about litter and waste decided to take a tried-and-true approach to beverage container recycling to Kentucky's General Assembly. Seeking action on a bottle bill might have been dismissed as a well-intentioned but naοve approach, except that it attracted the support of a powerful ally in the
Kentucky legislature.
House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo responded positively to the proposal by a
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