Big Bottle Bill No More: Gov's Office

Millions of taxpayer dollars across the country are flowing into state employees’ mouths, and a watchdog group criticized Connecticut for wastefully spending $500,000. However, the governor’s office says Gov. M. Jodi Rell went after contracts like the one for bottled water earlier this year and actually cut $21 million. 

A government watchdog group crunched the numbers on states’ drinking habits and issued its findings in a report called “Getting States Off the Bottle.”
 
Connecticut was listed among the states that flow the most taxpayer money into bottled water, the study reports -- $500,000 last year. Of that, $11,600 goes to drinking water for the state Capitol and legislative office buildings alone, the Boston-based group Corporate Accountability International reports.
 
Now the consumer group is urging officials here and in three other states to think outside the bottle.
 
Massachusetts spends more, at $527,107, Vermont spent nearly $206,000 on bottled water for the Statehouse and other state offices last year and the Pennsylvania state government spent nearly $670,000.
 
The governor’s office issued a statement saying it would be incorrect for anyone to say that the state allows any agency to utilize bottled water under our current contract.
 
The reports points out that Connecticut's water is just fine, so tap water could help keep bureaucrats' thirst under control. The Office of Legislative Research rates Connecticut as one of the top five for quality. Because of that, the report says, the current state contract is intended for use by agencies only where access to tap water is restricted of where water is not safe to drink.
 
The state actually has only has one active contract for bottled water, which the Department of Transportation, Department of Public Safety and one DMV location use and it’s only for when the departments have water that’s undrinkable.
 
Rell reminded state agencies in May that purchases for bottled water, water coolers and related water products have never been considered essential and should not be made with state funds. 
 
Corporate Accountability International says groundwater is being privatized by bottlers and that the bottles are big parts of waste streams around the country.
 

 
 
 
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