7- CENTBAG TAXCALLED ‘ BACKWARDS’

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to slap a 7- cents- a- bag tax on paper and plastic bags is drawing fire from some aldermen — and not because it’ll nickel and dime Chicago consumers who have had their fill of such taxes.

Aldermen Proco Joe Moreno ( 1st) and John Arena ( 45th) disagree with the environmental premise.

If the goal really is to stop a ploy by major retailers to get around the city’s partial ban on plastic bags, then the city should ban plastic bags altogether and impose a 10- cent tax on paper bags.

Instead, Emanuel’s plan would essentially lift the ban on plastic bags, which has turned into a farce with retailers like Target and JewelOsco switching to thicker plastic bags capable of being re- used 125 times.

Under Emanuel’s plan, shoppers would be charged 7 cents a bag for paper or plastic every time they shop without reusable bags.

A nickel of the tax would go to the city. The other 2 cents would go to local merchants to help defray the cost of paper and plastic bags.

“We’re going backwards. On the West Coast, they’re banning all plastics and charging for paper,” Moreno said Tuesday.

“For us to say we’ll get rid of the [ plastic bag] ban and you’ll pay 7 cents — stores won’t carry the paper because it’s too much. They’ll just carry the plastic. And consumers will swallow that 7 cents after a fewmonths. It’s got to be larger than that. What I propose is no plastic at all. Just gone unless you bring your own. And 10 cents on a paper bag.”

Arena acknowledged that an “economic motivator” in the form of a tax on disposable bags is “most effective in changing consumer behavior.” But he argued that the city should be “using the ban to push people towards a better choice.”