Here we are in the final days of this legislative session, hammering through a number of controversial bills that are of great importance to the people of Maine. After months of bills slowly trickling through the process, everything finally speeds up as summer quickly approaches.

 There are a number of important bills that are still before us, such as ranked-choice voting and a responsible biennial budget, but there’s also a lot that we’ve accomplished this session, including a bill aimed to clear Maine’s roadways of littered 50-milliliter bottles of liquor, otherwise known as ‘nips.’

Nip sales have been rapidly increasing in Maine as the popularity of this product has grown. Last year alone consumers bought almost 7 million of these bottles for a gross profit of about $6.5 million. This year that number climbed to 9.8 million nips bottles sold, an increase of 44 percent over sales last year.

The increased sales of this product have been great for Maine’s economy. Fireball, a cinnamon-flavored whiskey that accounts for nearly 40 percent of all nip sales in Maine, is bottled right in Lewiston at a bottling plant that employs roughly 130 people in good-paying jobs. Additionally, stores selling nips enjoy a profit of 13 percent.

But as these single-serving bottles have become more popular, a growing number of them are showing up on the side of the road as litter. In an effort to address this, the Legislature recently passed LD 56, “An Act To Include 50 Milliliter and Smaller Liquor Bottles in the Laws Governing Returnable Containers.”

 This new law, which takes effect on January 1, 2019, adds 50-milliliter liquor bottles to the state’s bottle deposit program, imposing a 5-cent deposit on nips to deter people from leaving them on the side of the road, or at the very least, encourage folks to pick them up to claim the deposit money.

During the committee process, a number of proponents and opponents traveled to Augusta to testify on this legislation, including a Topsham resident who supported the bill. Among both proponents and opponents, there was a consensus that there’s been a definite uptick in the number of small liquor bottles littering the sides of our roadways as sales have continued to increase.

 The Director of the Bureau of Land Resources testified in opposition of the bill, saying that, “The Depart-ment recognizes that roadside litter is a problem, but clearly nips are not the only discarded items.”

 But at the end of the day, the Legislature overwhelmingly agreed that while 5 cents may not be enough to deter people from littering, it will likely be enough of an incentive to encourage people to pick them up and recycle them. The Senate passed this law on an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 32-3 and the House on an impressive margin of 111-34.

 The governor decided to veto LD 56, citing concerns about the cost for implementation and the impact it would have on the state’s liquor contract. He said, “If proponents of this bill are truly concerned about the litter caused by discarded 50ml bottles on the side of the road, they have two options: either increase penalties for discarding these bottles or discontinue sales of these bottles altogether.”

 The governor also threatened to take action to discontinue the sales of these bottles if the Legislature did not vote to sustain his veto.

 But the Legislature felt strongly that increasing penalties wouldn’t be enough to solve this problem and that responsible consumers and the industry shouldn’t be punished for the actions of a few, so the veto was overridden by a landslide in both bodies.

 The governor has since made good on his promise, in spite of the jobs and revenue and tax dollars Maine stands to lose by banning the sale of this product. The State Liquor and Lottery Commission is now accepting written comment on the issue and will hear the governor’s request to delist nips at their next meeting on July 11. Written comment may be emailed in PDF format to: Tammy.L.Miller@maine.gov by July 3 at 3 p.m. and will be posted online by July 5. For more information, visit the website maine.gov/dafs/bablo/docs/Commission%20Public%20Notice%20for%20July%2011%202017%20Public%20Meeting.pdf.

 If you would like to contact me about a legislative issue, please call 87-1505, or email me at david.woodsome@legislature.maine.gov. 

— Sen. David Woodsome, R-Waterboro, represents Senate District 33, which includes Cornish, Limerick, Newfield, Parsonsfield, Sanford, Shapleigh, and Waterboro.