Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 19, 2024 9 POLITICS & POLICY Tony Santiago carries bags of sorted beverage containers at West Hartford Redemption. HBJ PHOTO/STEVE LASCHEVER of private bulk redemption centers has not produced the results needed to match the expected growth in bottle and can volume. While a majority of food retailers are fine with doing the work, Pesce said, they'd just like some more, and better located help with it. "We're selling these products and we do have an obligation to take back what we sell," Pesce said. "That's fair." But, he said, because there are so many non-grocery stores — such as convenience stores and gas stations — that sell these products and don't take them back, "that's where we struggle a little bit with the volume." In particular, Pesce said, it's one thing for a grocery store to redeem a couple of garbage bags full of bottles and cans brought in by a customer. It's another thing entirely to deal with bottle and can drives held by organi- zations like the Boy Scouts. There are also those who collect thousands of bottles and cans to make a living. The updated state statute, he noted, now includes a limit — grocery store customers are allowed to redeem a maximum of 240 bottles and/or cans per visit. Pesce said he would like to see DEEP have an even more "prescrip- tive private redemption model" that specifically targets key areas of the state. Making changes Rep. Joseph P. Gresko (D-Strat- ford), co-chair of the state legisla- ture's Environment Committee, said he'd also like to see DEEP, through its grant program, "steer inter- ested entrepreneurs into the eastern and western part of the state," where there are few or no redemption centers. He concedes, though, there are reasons facilities have not been devel- oped in certain locations. Whether it's a landowner who believes a redemption center "is stinky and has bottles every- where," not realizing state-of-the-art facilities are cleaner and safer, or just the high cost of leases, "sometimes it's difficult to locate them there," he said. Paul Copleman, a spokesman for DEEP, said his agency has conducted "additional outreach" for new redemp- tion centers "in qualified areas that remain unrepresented and where no applications had been received." Nonetheless, policymakers can make tweaks to the state's bottle-de- posit law, if needed, Gresko said. "We just went to 10 cents a couple of weeks ago, right? I'm going to let that marinate for a little while and see what happens," he said. "Maybe we do have to come back next year and fix a couple of glitches, but I'd like to see what some of the numbers are as far as redemption values going up." Redemption Center Pipeline These new and existing bulk redemption centers have been awarded grants by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. New facilities are in red: Redemption center Town Grant amount RecyclX Bristol $1,870,695 East Haven Bottle Return East Haven $216,039 Cash Can Redemption East Hartford $231,846 AAA Redemption Depot Enfield $248,445 North End Redemption Hartford $254,155 Manchester Redemption Ctr. Manchester $272,601 Central CT Redemption Ctr. New Britain $261,541 Vernon Bottle Return Vernon $184,000 Eye Recycle Waterbury $232,806 Redemption Ctrs. of America West Haven $175,000 The Donation Station Woodstock $160,376 Source: DEEP and RecycleMakesCentsCT.com Joseph P. Gresko Labor committee members at odds over sick leave, minimum wage proposals J ust a few weeks into Connecticut's 2024 legislative session, Demo- crats and Republicans on the Labor and Public Employees Committee are already at odds over proposals related to paid family leave, minimum wage for tipped workers and expanded unemployment benefits. Democratic members of the Labor Committee have rein- troduced several legislative proposals that were pitched last year but ultimately didn't pass, most notably a plan to expand Connecticut's paid sick leave program to include all workers in the state. Currently, the state's paid sick leave program only applies to companies with more than 50 workers. A similar proposal died on the House floor in 2023, after passing in the Senate. "It would provide paid sick days to all Connecticut workers in the amount of up to 40 hours," state Sen. Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) said during the labor committee's first meeting of the session. Republicans on the committee expressed concern that expanding paid sick leave would be a burden to small businesses. "You have an employer- and employee-based contract — it's a private contract between those parties," said Sen. Rob Sampson (R-Wolcott). "Every time the legislature interjects itself into that private relationship, we're up-ending the freedom of those parties to engage in commerce." Kushner, who co-chairs the labor committee, also introduced another proposal Democrats tried to pass last year: eliminating the lower minimum wage for hourly employees who earn tips, such as bartenders, waiters and other workers. Instead, she wants them to earn the state's regular $15.69 hourly minimum wage. A third proposal from Demo- crats would give unemployment benefits to employees on strike. Along party-line votes, with Democrats for and Republicans against, all three proposals were approved to be drafted into bills. Hearings will take place on the proposals before they're ulti- mately brought up for vote in the committee. — Skyler Frazer | HBJ Gov. Lamont wants NY's tax dollars from remote workers in CT A bout 75,000 Connecticut residents work remotely for companies across the border in New York, and Gov. Ned Lamont wants them to pay taxes here rather than in the Empire State. Lamont is challenging those remote workers to take New York officials to court and fight against that state's "Convenience of the Employer" rules, which require out-of-state employees to pay income taxes to New York rather than the state where they live and physically work. "We think it's an unconstitu- tional overreach by New York," said Office of Policy and Management Secretary Jeffrey Beckham, who is Lamont's budget director. Connecticut — whose income tax ranges from 3% to 6.99%, depending on an individual's earnings — has a more compet- itive income tax structure than New York, so Nutmeg State residents would see savings on their tax bills, Beckham said. New York's income tax ranges from 4% to 10.9%. Connecticut would potentially generate up to $200 million in additional tax revenue if those remote workers paid taxes here, Beckham added. Lamont also wants to dangle an incentive for remote workers in Connecticut to challenge New York law. He'd like to offer a one-time 50% income tax credit to anyone who successfully chal- lenges New York law. That carrot would need legislative approval. The incentive program would cover the tax years from 2020 to 2023, Beckham said. He said the state got the idea from New Jersey, which recently imple- mented a similar program. — Skyler Frazer | HBJ CT'S MINIMUM WAGES $ 15.69 CT's regular hourly minimum wage $ 8.23 Tipped minimum wage for bartenders $ 6.38 Tipped minimum wage for wait staff Source: CT Dept. of Labor

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