Some Pols Hope Plastic Bag Fee is Not in the Bag

By KARI FORD

A group of local politicians urged New Yorkers Thursday to sign an online petition encouraging elected officials in Albany to overturn the New York City Council’s recent bill to charge a fee on plastic bags.

“The intent of the bill is a good one in the sense of recycling, but it’s misguided, it puts a burden on the people of New York City,” said Assemblyman Michael Cusick at the press conference in Brooklyn, “There are other ways of going about this rather than taxing folks.”

The legislation, similar to those already in affect in California and Washington D.C., was designed to reduce the use of the environmentally unfriendly plastic bags. The New York City Sanitation Department estimated that 10 billion of these bags are disposed of every year, ending up in the city’s landfills for centuries. The bill imposes what they refer to as a fee, though many who oppose say it is really a tax, which the merchants and retailers collecting the money get to keep. Supporters of the bill are hoping that it will cause New Yorkers to bring their own reusable bags to the store, reducing the amount of plastic and paper carry out bags in circulation and in landfills.

The fee, that is set to go into affect in October, will force New Yorkers to pay five cents for each plastic or paper bag they get from the grocery store. But not all New Yorkers are subject to this tax; officials said that anybody who is currently receiving food stamps is exempt, among others.

Critics say that the fee falls most heavily on the middle class and the working poor.

“People who work hard and come home at the end of the day with nothing left, they’re the middle class,” said Assemblyman Dov Hikind. “When I shop, and many people in this community with large families, do you know how many bags we walk out with? People who have six, seven, eight children, for God’s sake government, don’t make our lives more difficult and complicated.”

The officials contend that the fee not only is going to make the consumer’s life more complicated, but also the small business owners and employees who will be the ones telling the people that they need to pay for their carryout bags.

“I have to explain this tax to my customers,” said Tony Loverde, owner of the Circus Fruits supermarket where the conference was held. “They don’t understand that this is a tax, they think it’s a profit for me.”

“We have yet to hear from a single resident who thinks this is a good idea,” said State Senator Diane Savino. “Here we have a half-assed, ill-thought-out policy. We ask them to take a step back, perhaps consult us in Albany. We can help them develop a bigger and better plan, we’re ready to stand by and help you.”

Assemblyman Ron Castorina had a pithy remark on the ultimate fate of the fee: “We need to bag the bag tax.”

 

“