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. “Food is expensive and now we have to pay for the bags, too? They should try to come up with ideas and solutions and not just more taxes.”
Others said they would bring their own cloth bags rather than pay more at the store.
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“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.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Hey Bloomberg, what’s the tax rate for being a douche bag?
November 7th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Soon the bag will cost more then the fucking items in it.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
It’s a con-spiricy by GLAD-BAGS to get rid of the bags you use for the trash so they can sell their trash bags,only kidding but it sounds good .
November 8th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Time for another Boston tea party, when does the taxing stop? I say it stops only when we say so by holding these public offices accountable for the spending that they already do. In my home if I do not have enough cash to pay for an item, luxury or service then I must realize that fact, I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ENJOY THAT ITEM, LUXURY OR SERVICE and therefore have to make a decision as to what already existing expenditure can I eliminate or decrease to gain the other. In other words, which is more necessary. I know that so much plastic refuse is not good for us, so go back to paper, recycled paper manufactured by our very large prison population. Pay them handsomely for these services, charge them accordingly for their accommodations then let them send the surplus if any home to their families maybe we could then help a family or two get out of the cycle of crime to raise monies for food etc. … That makes to much sense though and may help reduce the prison population thereby causing some layoffs in the criminal system, but then again I know we would much rather keep the criminal system jobs than to help people get out of the system.
November 8th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
you guys are idiots. ..bring your own damn bag. why waste more plastic and paper and fill up landfills? how hard is it to bring your own bag to the store.
fucking american morons.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
will this tax be payable with a wellfare card/ food stamps ? Will I beable to refund my bags at home ?
November 8th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
If i could use the bags to put over the heads of all the nasty people tring to run/ruin this planet ,i would be happy to pay a small fee,but is there any body out their with the free mind to help out,and any way then i would be playing their game …something that ‘they’ are missing in their preprogramed set up is staring us all in the face…we have to be aware that ‘the emperors have no clothes’laugh at the leaders and start using potatoes for money,take away their power,no control of money= no power,time 4 tv…oh another mind numbing games show..who want’s to be a gazillionaire…and i don’t cause all i want is….potatoes.