Bottle Bill Protest Today

There will be a bottle bill protest at an independent supermarket located in the Bronx today. The protest is being led by Nelson Eusebio, Chairman of New Yorkers Against Unfair Taxes, New York tax payers, and small business owners. The purpose of the protest is to highlight just how the expanded bottle law is a massive hidden tax on New York's consumers.

WHERE: C Town Supermarket: 1750 University Avenue Bronx, NY (near 176th and University Ave).

WHEN: Tuesday, March 31st at 12:00 PM

WHY: The expanded bottle bill is not about cans, it’s about cash; it’s aggressive tax policy disguised as environmental progress. DO NOT BE FOOLED. If passed, this unfair, misguided and hidden tax could:

1. Eliminate thousands of New York jobs;

2. Further hamper New York businesses;

3. Further damage New York’s already fragile economy;

4. Place an additional burden on the backs of hard working – and disproportionately lower and middle income – New Yorkers;

5. Mean the triumph of back-room, closed-door policy-making…and will signal the death of “transparency” in state government;

6. Represent a confiscatory state-money grab of over $100 million each year;

7. Make a mockery of “representative” Government.

This could be just the beginning of protests that might roil the structure of state government in the weeks and months ahead; perhaps even heeding Greg David's call to arms: "Any effort to change this state of affairs will have to be organized and financed by business. This is not so easy. Business groups are divided by geography: upstate, suburban and New York City. Industry groups are primarily concerned with their own parochial issues...Twice in the 1990s, which seems like the distant past, business leaders did mobilize against incumbents. In 1993, fearing the city was in grave danger under David Dinkins, executives opened their wallets for Rudy Giuliani. The next year, many did so again for George Pataki, despite the clear likelihood that Mario Cuomo would penalize them if he won reelection. In both elections, the challenger decided to run and then business decided to back the insurgent."

So, is this a similar situation? Hard to say if we're there yet; but just the thought-to borrow from the puerile Chris Matthews-sends a thrill up our leg.