Bag Tax Causes Greater Mess for D.C.'s Fiscal Environment

ATR ^ | 2012-08-24 | Matt Blumenfeld

[92nina]

[Thurs]day Patrick Gleason, Director of State Affairs at ATR, had a piece published in the National Review explaining a new study recently conducted by the Beacon Hill Institute that examines the economic damage done by D.C.'s bag tax since its implementation two years ago. From the new study finds that the D.C. bag tax will yield the following results by 2016: [Added full context of excerpt from the actual report itself, with the additions in parentheses.]

• (The D.C. government’s estimate that the Bag Tax reduced grocery bag sales by 80% is too high because they used an inappropriate city as a proxy for D.C. bag sales and failed to account for non-compliance by retailers. We estimate that the Bag Tax reduced bag consumption by a more modest 67%.)

• (The Bag Tax is subject to a “rebound effect,” in which paper and plastic bag consumption increases after the initial shock of the tax wears off. We estimate that the bag consumption will rise by 57% from the FY 2011 levels by 2016.)

• (To reduce the increase in bag consumption, the D.C. Council would need to increase the Bag Tax rate. To restore the initial 67% decline in bag consumption, the Bag Tax would need to rise by 27% to 6.3-cents per bag; to reduce bag consumption by 80% of the pretax level, the tax would need to increase by 45% to 7.25-cents; and to reduce bag consumption by 90% the tax would need to increase by 60% to 7.99-cents.)

• (A rebound in bag use by Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 will cost D.C. residents $5.73 million and lead to greater losses for the D.C. economy.) Employment losses will rise to 136 net local jobs from 101 in FY 2011, and aggregate real disposable income will fall further by $8.08 million from $5.8 million in FY 2011. Investment declines will increase to $1.58 million from $600 thousand in FY 2011.

• (The economic loses will drive sales tax revenues down by $163,500 from the $100,000 we estimated for FY 2011.)

To read the column...in its entirety, click here.

[92nina]

New study demonstrates how the D.C. bag tax negatively effects local economy

[Huskrrrr]

Our bag in SF, Nancy Pelosi, has been taxing us for years.

[EGPWS]

New study demonstrates how the D.C. bag tax negatively effects local economy

That can mean only one thing, it's a liberal agenda.

[92nina]

Does she look even worse in person than on camera?

[Marcella]

In Texas, we aren’t charged for bags. However, yesterday I bought cloth bags at Kroger to start using them. They were 99 cents each and I bought five. I alreay had one of their insulated bags for cold/frozen food.

Here’s what happened because they used my cloth bags and insulated bag for my groceries:

The bags didn’t fall over in the car and spill the goods all over as the plastic bags did. The cloth bags were easier to fit in the car.

When I got home, the groceries were still in the bags. The cloth handles on bags with a good amount of weight in them, didn’t hurt my hands the way the plastic handles did. I could carry in more cloth bags in one trip than I could the plastic ones.

Now, I have to remember to take the cloth bags to the grocery store. I put all of them into the insulated bag since it is larger than the other bags, and hung it on the front door knob. Now, I’ll see them before I go out the door.

Cloth bags are good - plastic bags are not good.

[Average Al]

Those cloth bags take 100 times more energy to make than plastic bags and you have to wash them all the time if you don’t want to get sick. Stuff your bags.............

[Huskrrrr]

Don’t ask. :0)

[92nina]

I hear you and agree on the bags themselves. And the plastic bags end having to be double or even triple-bagged sometimes. It’s these government instituted item taxes that are the problem.

The DC bag tax was sold to the public as going to clean up the Anacostia river, but all the money goes into the general fund.

[UCANSEE2]

How long before the BAG costs more than the FOOD you could afford to place in it ?

[UCANSEE2]

Now, I have to remember to take the cloth bags to the grocery store

You skipped the LAUNDRY part. Gotta wash those cloth bags, or all kinds of nasty germs will start breeding in them.

Probably better get another set of cloth bags, just in case the other ones are in the laundry hamper.

[Marcella]

Groceries like closed boxes, cans, won’t contaminate the bags. I’ll put a marker on a bag to use for fresh veggies or shrink wrapped meat and stick some of the many plastic bags I have, in there to put those items in before they go in the bag - that cloth bag will also get washed.

The cloth bags are much easier for me to use AT MY AGE.