Politics & Government
Windsor Locks Sen. John Kissel Opposes New Mattress Fee
The legislature is considering adding a fee of between $8-$12 for new mattresses to help pay for recycling when they become bulky waste.
This article was posted by Elyssa M. Millspaugh. It was reported and written by Elyssa M. Millspaugh and Eileen McNamara.
A proposal to add a fee of as much as $12 to the cost of buying a new mattress in Connecticut has passed the state's House and Senate with mixed support from some local lawmakers, and Sen. John Kissel, (R-Enfield), who represents Windsor Locks, opposing the measure.
Fearing residents will favor a trip to Massachusetts to save $10-$15 on a mattress, Kissel said he had to "vote with the consumer."
"We can’t paint ourselves into a corner to be first in the nation in this, that, and the other thing," Kissel told the blog Capitol Watch.
Groups that lobby on behalf of towns, including the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, support the measure to ease the costs on towns of disposing of illegally discarded mattresses.
Some 350,000 new mattresses are sold annually in Connecticut and CCM estimates that towns collectively spend $1.3 million each year cleaning up old mattresses from roadsides, Capitol Watch reports.
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