Bottle Tax Proposed by Baltimore City Council

It's mind-blowing that City Council is talking about taxing the energy used by Baltimore's dwindling base of manufacturers as an alternative to the "bottle tax" of 4 cents a drink. Baltimore had 13,000 factory jobs in April the least ever recorded since the Labor Department began keeping track. That's down from 27,000 in 2000 and 43,000 in 1990.

The Baltimore City Council has endorsed more than $43 million in new or higher taxes on items including income and telephone lines, largely adopting a wrenching budget-balancing plan laid out by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

The tax of 4 cents per container, exempting milk and fruit juice bottles, was proposed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in April as a way to help raise $50 million in new tax revenue to help eliminate a looming deficit and avoid city layoffs and cuts to fire and police operations. It is estimated to bring in $11.4 million in new revenues annually.

A deposit on bottles would make a lot more sense, though it wouldn't achieve the purpose of the tax, which is to raise revenues for the city. Instead, a deposit would raise revenues for citizens and nonprofits while augmenting the efforts already being made to recycle glass and plastic.