Handle it, andrew

Rather than stand up and reject state legislation killing the City Council’s imposition of a nickel fee on disposable paper and plastic grocery bags, Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday joined the gang infantilizing New York City. And — insisting he hates the no-good, dirty plastic bags as much as anyone — he promised to ride to the rescue with a statewide solution that’s better in every way, delivered by year’s end by a fig leaf-task force.

Sorry, gov. That’s a sorry excuse for bigfooting the city and nullifying its exhaustive, good-faith legislative efforts, even as identical bag fees in two other parts of the state remain untouched.

Cuomo, knowing full well that if he vetoed the bill the Legislature was poised to override him, hung his sudden enthusiasm for intervention on the notion that the fees generated would get pocketed by the grocery stores and other merchants.

A novel thought, governor — but no good reason to immediately block the city fee.

To save face, and prove his environmental credibility is second to none, Cuomo now promises to forge a better way forward.

He floats two alternatives to start, both of which would apply all across the state: One, an outright ban on the polluting, never-degrading plastic bags. Two, a straight-up tax, with the money going to the government.

Absurdly, the only idea off the table is the one that the duly elected representatives of New York City arrived at after two years of careful study: A fee on all bags collected by grocers, with exemptions for the poor.

If the City Council had wanted a ban, they would have voted one in. They didn’t because evidence from around the country is that the bans have a hell of a time defining precisely which plastic bags are proscribed.

And after bans are imposed, the use of less-polluting, biodegradable paper bags often sharply increases.

Chicago had a ban. It didn’t work, so it was changed to a fee of 7 cents.

California passed a statewide ban on thin plastic bags, but that was accompanied by a dime fee for each allowed bag — thicker plastics and paper. That money goes to the grocers.

As for replacing a fee collected by grocers with a tax collected by government, the Council was fine with that even though it wouldn’t answer the central objection of the bag-fee opponents: that nobody should pay more just to get a bag.

Cuomo just gave himself a heavy load to carry. He’s going to need to double-bag this one.