Vote is set to bag city’s fee
STATE LAWMAKERS vowed Sunday to block the city from slapping a 5-cent fee on plastic and paper bags.
The fee on disposable bags, passed by the City Council last year, is set to go into effect Feb. 15. But the state Senate plans to vote Tuesday on a measure that would block the bill, its sponsor, Sen. Simcha Felder, said Sunday.
The legislation’s fate is less certain in the Democratic-controlled Assembly, where it has significant support but no vote is scheduled.
“New Yorkers are tired of being nickel and dimed,” said Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat who caucuses with Republicans, at a press conference outside City Hall.
“Why are we picking on the most vulnerable New Yorkers to drive them out of their minds and tax them over and over again?” he said. “Please, Mayor de Blasio, please do not irritate New Yorkers further.”
The fee, which storeowners would keep, is meant to encourage shoppers to bring reusable bags and cut down on waste. New Yorkers trash 10 billion plastic bags a year, and it costs the city $12.5 million to haul them to landfills.
It was originally scheduled to take effect last October, but the Council agreed to push the date back to February in a deal with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie that for the time being averted state action to block the mandate.
Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Staten Island) said 27 city Assembly members have co-sponsored the bill to block the fee.
“I’m confident that we have the votes to pass something,” he said. “We still have time to come up with something that works for all New Yorkers.”
But there have been no talks on a compromise, according to both sides.
“They want to pretend they have a compromise. They have no compromise. They don’t want to do anything about reducing plastic bag waste,” said Councilman Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn).
Lander, the sponsor of the fee bill, noted the version the Council passed already represented a compromise since he originally proposed a 10-cent charge.
Anyone who doesn’t want to pay for a bag can easily avoid it, he said. “It’s just not that hard to bring a reusable bag,” Lander said.
While Assembly Dems last year indicated they might be open to blocking the bag fee, Lander said he hoped things had changed since the election of Donald Trump as President.
“It would be shameful for the Assembly to go along with the GOP state Senate in rolling back sensible environmental regulations,” he said. “I can’t believe whatever they thought last June (is) what Assembly Democrats would want to go along with.”