It is more time-consuming for opponents to lobby each member of the budget committee personally, because it is the largest in the legislature. And Moberly, the chairman, was a co-sponsor of Stumbo's 1998 bottle bill. Starting the bill in the appropriations committee will give Stumbo more time to sell it, said Rep. Jeffrey Hoover, R-Jamestown. If the bill passes the House budget committee, it would go to the full House without passing through the natural resources committee, even though it deals with environmental issues. The bill would put Kentucky in a select group on a number of fronts.
Few states have mandatory universal garbage collection.
Only 10 states and one city have container deposits, and no state has an advance disposal fee targeted for environmental cleanup. But Stumbo's bill faces uncertain prospects, despite polls showing 75 percent support for container deposits. Stumbo said of the lobbying effort against his bill. Bickford and Gov. Paul Patton support mandatory garbage collection. And Patton has said he would support either Stumbo's deposit idea or Bickford's 1-cent fee proposal.