HB 4444 (H-1): Another Broken Bottle Bill

HB 4443 and HB 4444 enable the shifting of money dedicated to the state’s bottle deposit fund (and contaminated site clean up) towards beverage distributors, reducing the state’s ability to address the more than 24,000 registered contaminated sites across Michigan. HB 4443 would allow bottle distributors to claim a $0.005 income tax credit for every returnable container sold during the tax year. For 2020, 2021, and 2022, when the unreturned bottle escheats total at least $50 million, HB 4444 (H-1) would allow the Treasury to use the bottle bill escheats to pay back the general fund for any income tax credits (and refunds) claimed under HB 4443 from the bottle deposit fund before distributing the remaining funds to EGLE and retailers.

Currently, 75% of unreturned bottle deposit funds are disbursed to EGLE while 25% are given to retailers. According to an HFA report from HB 6762 of 2020, a .5 cent credit on four billion bottles annually would cost the state more than $20 million each year.