Some two dozen Connecticut merchants are urging the state to save $48,000 annually by ending its taxpayer-funded purchases of bottled water just as Vermont is closing the spigot on such purchases.
Merchants, including the owners of downtown Hartford’s City Steam Brewery and Blackeyed Sally’s BBQ and Blues restaurants, were scheduled to lead a rally Tuesday morning on the State Capitol steps to ignite broader public support for its “Vote the Tap, Kick the Bottles Out” campaign.
The local effort is coordinated by Corporate Accountability International and its Think Outside the Bottle campaign.
Simultaneous events are being held in Maryland, Vermont, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington.
On Tuesday, Vermont’s Governor Peter Shumlin announced a commitment to phase-out taxpayer spending on bottled water, the organizers said.
According to event organizers, 27 Connecticut merchants have pledged to end their use of bottled water and are pressing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to do the same.
Organizers argue that along with its $3.7 billion budget shortfall, Connecticut’s purchase of bottled water shortchanges the public water systems it simultaneously funds with taxpayer dollars.
Worse, they say, is that more than four out of every 10 gallons of bottled water produced comes from taps that are greatly regulated than bottled.
Malloy’s predecessor, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, had already begun a pilot program to being phasing in bottle-less water coolers to replace bottled water at Capitol facilities.
