I'd Rather Have a Bottle Bill Study In Front of Me...

So should we do what polls show a majority of Iowans want or should we do what the grocery industry wants? And what about the Big Lug? Tough call.

I know, I know, let's do a worthless study. From Radio Iowa:

The Iowa House has voted to create a new commission to study changes in the state's bottle deposit law.

It's a go-slow approach at odds with Governor Culver's call for adding water bottles and other noncarbonated drink containers to the state's nickel deposit process.

The group will be charged with reviewing the state's 34-year-old "bottle bill" which places a nickel deposit on many beverage containers. Iowans return most of the empties to a retailer to redeem their deposits.  

The new task force studying the issue would have 28 members, including representatives from environmental groups, redemption centers, the League of Women Voters and landfill operators who've been pushing for the bottle bill expansion as well as grocers and beverage distributors who've balked at the idea.  The Iowa Senate must endorse creation of the task force, too, before the group would begin its work.

This is going to be great. Hopefully, this task force will turn in its report at the same time the property tax reform study group hands in its work. We could have a ceremonial double shelving. That would be historic.

We're about to enter the heart of study creation season. As lawmakers push more and more issues off the cliff in an effort to escape the Capitol next month, they'll create interim study committees to cushion the fall. The issues are dead, no doubt about it, but at least they'll get a nice send off in an ornate Statehouse meeting room with lots of distinguished Iowans around the table.

It's a time-honored tradition. Sort of chokes me up.