CA may impose a $.25 tax per plastic bag

Reuters ^ | April 15, 2009 | Nichola Groom

[econjack]

California, always seeking to be a trendsetter on environmental policy, is weighing a proposal to charge 25 cents for every paper or plastic bag distributed at grocery stores, pharmacies and convenience stores. The money raised would go into a state fund used to clean up trash and prevent litter related to what the bill calls “single-use” bags.

The bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, says 25 cents a bag is high enough to have a real impact on consumer behavior. The fee would be waived for some low-income Californians.

[econjack]

CA wants to tax each plastic bag you get at a store. However, if you have a low income, for some reason poor people can pollute all they want and are exempt from the tax. Sorry, poor people, if you want to escape this regressive tax, work harder.

[jalisco555]

How is a supermarket checkout clerk supposed to know if someone is poor enough to get exempted?

[DuncanWaring]

Here’s another way to escape the tax - reuse the bags.

[DuncanWaring]

There will be yet another expansive government bureaucracy complete with forms, hearings and administrative review boards to issue “Bag Tax Exemption Certificates”.

[tatsinfla]

i have an idea....whay don’t all states or the federal gov’t just have all employers send the employees checks directly to them....cut out the middle man....then they can buy us each a home/car/medical/food/clothing all the essentials that we need in life...no fuss no muss..

[Syberyenta]

In Denmark, shopping bags at the grocery are an extra $.50 each

This has a marked effect on consumer behavior.

[ErnBatavia]

This’ll go tough on WalMart shoppers.....If you buy six things, it seems like you walk out with 8 or 9 of those flimsy bags.

[jetson]

The bone head government is always behind the times. Smart stores offer a ticket that goes into a weekly drawing of 100.00 if you bring your own bags. The stores pay alot for paper bags.

[Right Brother]

Here’s another way to escape the tax - reuse the bags.

Yeah. You reuse the plastic bag by placing it over the head of a liberal politician and reducing his carbon footprint.

[SJSAMPLE]

Anything coming out of California is suspect, but I remember my home state of Michigan as the first in the nation to introduce a returnable bottle/can law.

It did have a remarkable effect on litter all over the state.

The bottle law in Michigan had the potential to be a zero-net effect on state revenue. If 100% of the bottles/cans were returned, the state couldn’t depend on it for revenue. I really don’t know what Michigan does with the variance.

However, since this is a straight tax, how is this revenue guaranteed to be directed towards litter control, and not another injection into the general fund?

[bboop]

Perhaps they’ll issue “Get Out of Jail Free” cards.

Because, of course, SOME animals are better than others.

[econjack]

How is a supermarket checkout clerk supposed to know if someone is poor enough to get exempted?

Every poor person will have an "I'm a poor person" card, issued by the California Department of Poor People, a new 15,000 person agency created to administer the cards. This does not include the CA Dept of Poor People enforcement agency, the CA Dept of Poor Person Fraud Unit, or the CA Dept of Accounting and Tax Collection Services.

[patton]

LOL.

[ElayneJ]

I guess pollution caused by the economically challenged doesn’t count. OK. In a few months we’ll be pollution free because we’ll all be poor.

These plastic bags were introduced years ago as an alternative to paper - to save trees and to promote a greener world. Good grief! Come to think of it, those were the days of global cooling.

[bboop]

correction/ duh: Some animals are more EQUAL than others.

[Reeses]

Costco has this figured out. Most of the items a supermarket sells come delivered to them in cardboard boxes. These same boxes can be used to box things up on the way out as the net volume is the exactly the same. Not only can stores stop buying bags, they can offload their box disposal costs onto the customer.

[MARTIAL MONK]

How is a supermarket checkout clerk supposed to know if someone is poor enough to get exempted?

They are the fat ones.

[Zeppelin]

Costco has this figured out. Most of the items a supermarket sells come delivered to them in cardboard boxes. These same boxes can be used to box things up on the way out as the net volume is the exactly the same. Not only can stores stop buying bags, they can offload their box disposal costs onto the customer.

Spec's does the same thing. It's convenient for all parties, but I feel so wrong when I'm carrying top shelf liquor in a Taaka or Everclear box.

[P-Marlowe]

Here’s another way to escape the tax - reuse the bags.

No the way to escape the tax is to tell the checker to put everything you buy into the shopping cart unbagged and then ask for help out to your car. Then let the box-person (or whatever the heck they are called these days) load the groceries into the boxes you keep in the trunk of your car.

[P-Marlowe]

The bill’s other aim is to help the state offset the $25 million a year it spends to clean up plastic bag waste. Municipalities spend $300 million, Brownley says.

That figure is pure unadulterated Bull-crap. You'd think they have 25 people running around the state looking for plastic bags and they pay them each a million dollars a year. And the municipalities have 300 of these people.