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| 'If I had a nickel for every bag,' sez Mayor Bloomberg | |
| 2008-11-08 | |
| Mayor Bloomberg wants to nickel and dime you at the grocery store - taxing you an extra 5 cents for every plastic bag you take home. The controversial charge could raise at least $16 million for the cash-strapped city while keeping tons of plastic out of landfills, city officials said Thursday - but some outraged shoppers aren't buying it. "Bloomberg is a piece of work," Clemelda Gipson, 39, said outside a D'Agostino grocery store in Chelsea.
Others said they would bring their own cloth bags rather than pay more at the store. "I think it's a good idea. There is way too much plastic being used at the grocery stores anyways," said actress Denise Lute. "We need to be eco-conscious. If I'm charged a nickel it'll make me take my own bag." New Yorkers use an estimated 1 billion plastic bags per year. City officials aren't sure what bags they plan to tax, or how they'd collect it - though they're considering allowing merchants to charge an extra penny per bag, giving them an incentive to track it. "They're charging sales taxes already. There's not some massive new overhaul or bureaucracy that's needed," said Rohit Aggarwala, Bloomberg's head of environmental affairs. "We are hoping that at 6 cents a bag, people would change their behavior." San Francisco bans plastic bags unless they are biodegradable, while a proposed 20-cent fee in Seattle is on hold pending a challenge. In Ireland, a 33-cent fee pushed plastic bag use down 94%. New York considered a plastic bag tax earlier this year but settled for a mandatory recycling program, figuring most stores would just switch to paper, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens) said. Ikea tried charging customers a nickel per bag, but when demand for its 70 million bags a year dropped 92%, the chain just eliminated them. "There's a positive impact on the environment," spokesman Joseph Roth said. "It certainly has not hindered our sales, and it has helped our reputation." Some grocery chains already give customers a discount for every cloth bag they bring. Whole Foods switched its stores to paper bags this year, even though the plastic industry insists paper bags are worse for the environment. "This would essentially be a food tax," said Keith Christman of the American Chemistry Council. "It would have major unintended environmental consequences." | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #24 I'd take satan over walmart. |
| Posted by: Fester Creanter3194 2008-11-08 23:24 |
| #23 but wal mart is satan remember |
| Posted by: chris 2008-11-08 21:37 |
| #22 Wal-Mart takes plastic bags for recycling. They also sell cloth bags if one doesn't want plastic. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2008-11-08 18:27 |
| #21 Why not a tax on winos? There are thousands of them in Manhattan alone. Every time you have to step over one, you drop a nickel in a slot. |
| Posted by: Carbon Monoxide 2008-11-08 18:05 |
| #20 And, Hussein's pal & mentor, Dick Daley, is gonna add a little tax to your Dish Network bill, if you're within the city limits. He already hit the cables companies several years ago. Combined with all the tags and stickers you have to have to fart within Chicago, I'm suprised there are any non-welfare residents left. That's lefties for ya, taking every cent you have, cause they are smarter than you are and they can spend it more wisely than you. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 2008-11-08 17:52 |
| #19 JQC - that doesn't bring in the coin, and that's Bloomberg's purpose, not recycling or ecology. He wants the money, and this seems like a small cut, not an artery, so it doesn't hurt much |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-11-08 16:18 |
| #18 I was up in Vancouver a couple of years ago. Vancouver had an arrangement whereby if you brought in your recyclables and re-used your bags you could get a discount on your groceries. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-11-08 16:10 |
| #17 Our local military commissary brought in dark-green reusable shopping bags, and sold them for some low price, then offered a small discount for each one you brought back in to refill. It didn't take long doing that for the reusable bags to pay for themselves. We have about 25 of them around here, and we reuse them regularly. We still end up having a few paper bags each shopping trip, which is good. We use those to put newspapers in for recycling. It's amazing how well this idea caught on with the families of active duty military, and some retirees. There are still quite a few retirees, especially the older ones, that don't use them. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-11-08 15:50 |
| #16 These government geniuses must stay up late at night figuring out how to further tax the citizens of NY. Get ready America for a lot more of taxes. What's that drip, drip, drip, drip? It's the sound of being bled dry. Where's my "Don't blame me, I voted for McCain-Palin" bumper sticker? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-11-08 14:32 |
| #15 Nanny Bloomberg! Save us!! SAVE US!!! Save us from ourselves! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-11-08 13:26 |
| #14 when's the last time Bloomberg bought his own groceries, ya think? Ever? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-11-08 12:53 |
| #13 I would not dismiss this as a crazy NYC thing -- it can easily catch on at a state or municipality near you. On the one hand it's fairly invisible, "eco-friendly" and sticks it to "the man" (eg soccer moms who buy groceries). On the other it's regressive -- taxing the poor who tend not to have trendy Euro-style reusable hand-corded cotton string shopping bags. Then again the self-righteous political class doesn't seem to care about the poor much anymore: witness the proliferation of state lotteries |
| Posted by: regular joe 2008-11-08 12:44 |
| #12 I figured he meant all the Prada and Coach purses he has for home cross-dressing. Meh.... he's been a fairly poor Mayor, but then, that's what New York wants and deserves. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-11-08 11:54 |
| #11 yeah a nickel bag cost you about $30 now |
| Posted by: chris 2008-11-08 10:35 |
| #10 Half Empty, I had essentially the same mis-thought: "What, they still HAVE nickel bags?" |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-11-08 10:10 |
| #9 $1 a bag could not get NYC out of the red. Because they will take whatever they collect and hand it over to people who give NOTHING to society. It doesn't matter how much money you throw at them, they will always take and never give. It has become part of their DNA at this point. So for god's sake, don't take the money and use it to revitalize small business or improve the infrastructure in and round that rotting cesspool, give it to the scum that make the city such a 'vibrant' and 'multicultural' place. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-11-08 09:28 |
| #8 'If I had a nickel for every bag,' sez Mayor Bloomberg You would still be broke. Wasteful spending liberal. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-11-08 08:59 |
| #7 LOL Regular Joe. Course Ima miss-read the headline.. If I had a Nickel Bag and yes, taxing the Nickel Bag is my solution to problems USA. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-11-08 08:56 |
| #6 This will destroy the vital dogwalking industry. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2008-11-08 08:27 |
| #5 "They should try to come up with ideas and solutions and not just more taxes." What are the odds that Ms. Gipson said this after voting for Zero? The ignorant irony is breath taking. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2008-11-08 07:15 |
| #4 How about a progressive tax on politicans' pronouncements. Graduated for the amount of time spoken. Talk about a windfall profit tax. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-11-08 07:11 |
| #3 First they taxed cigarettes and I said nothing Cause I don't smoke Then they taxed booze and I said nothing Cause I don't drink so much anymore Then they came for the plastic shopping bags... |
| Posted by: regular joe 2008-11-08 06:58 |
| #2 Leftists. Sucking their stooges dry for... oh hell. What's the use in talking. |
| Posted by: Hyper 2008-11-08 04:30 |
| #1 A good old fashioned program of reduction of the size and power of government would resolve this "environmental" problem in one effective swoop. No Money. No silly enviro regulations. |
| Posted by: badanov 2008-11-08 00:46 |