TIME IS RUNNING OUT! Oppose WA state's proposed bottle water tax!

TO: IBWA Washington State Bottler, Distributor and Supplier Members
CC: IBWA Government Relations Committee and State Affairs Task Force

Please see below for a SECOND Action Alert that was sent THIS WEEK to our Washington State Bottled Water Matters petition signers regarding the bottled water tax proposals that are being considered RIGHT NOW in the Legislature. Please take action yourself - EVEN IF YOU ALREADY DID SO LAST WEEK - and please share this action alert with ALL your co-workers, family, friends and customers so that they may take action as well to protect the bottled water industry in Washington State. We generated about 400 letters from last week's alert, and would like get 800 MORE letters to legislators within the next two days.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE HERE, SO PLEASE BE CREATIVE AND GET THE WORD OUT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE SO THAT WASHINGTON STATE DOES NOT ELIMINATE THE EXISTING BOTTLED WATER SALES TAX EXEMPTION.

Thank you, and please do not hesitate to contact IBWA with any related concerns or questions.

Daniel Felton
Director, Government Relations
International Bottled Water Association (IBWA)
1700 Diagonal Road, Suite 650
Alexandria, VA. 22314
(703) 647-4618 office
Dfelton@bottledwater.org





Dear Washington State Bottled Water Supporter,

Thank you very much for taking the time to sign our Bottled Water Matters petition during this past year. We truly do appreciate your support of the bottled water industry and our products.

And thank you if you responded to our Action Alert last week asking you to write your Washington State legislators about bottled water tax proposals that are currently under consideration within the Legislature. Talk about taxing bottled water continues this week, now with a very strong interest in trying to eliminate the existing bottled water sales tax exemption. Bottled water is a packaged FOOD product, and as such should remain exempt from Washington State's sales taxes.

Please consider taking another few minutes of your time TODAY to sign a letter to your Washington State Senators and Representatives asking them to OPPOSE any and all legislation that would raise the price of your bottled water and eliminate jobs. A copy of your letter will automatically be sent to Governor Gregoire. The bottled water tax proposal will be under serious consideration in the Legislature as early as TODAY, so it is critical that your legislators hear from you RIGHT NOW. The short time you spend today on this issue will save you money tomorrow.

Visit either of these links to take action:

http://www.bottledwatermatters.com/content/take-action

OR

http://capwiz.com/ibwa/issues/alert/?alertid=14709586

Please pass this email along to your family and friends who also enjoy bottled water so that they can write their legislators too. And ask them to sign our petition if they haven’t already done so.

Thanks for your time, and we appreciate your support of the bottled water industry.

Sincerely,
The Bottled Water Matters Team