ALBANY—Here's the official written injunction from federal court Judge Thomas Griesa, which declares the state's expanded bottle law unenforceable until April 1, 2010, which should cost the state over $100 million dollars.
Griesa issued the order after a group of bottlers sued to stop the enforcement of the law, on grounds that its provision for a New York-specific UPC code violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution.
David Paterson and other legislative leaders recognized there was an issue and vowed to solve it. No action was ever taken. The law was to take effect today, but now the state stands to lose a projected $115 million, which was the revenue the legislation was projected to bring in.
"It's a dreadful decision, and the worst part about it is it should never have gone to the
courts in the first place," said Laura Haight, a lobbyist for NYPIRG who has long advocated for the bottle bill. "The governor, the Senate and the Assembly knew about these problems for months, and failed to fix them. If they had, we wouldn't be in this place."
