Posted on 03/24/2017 8:06:09 AM PDT by Puppage
HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — The ‘Bag Tax’ is back, and a key legislative committee says it should start this October.
It would require a nickel tax on non-reusable bags at the supermarket and other retailers, and the bill has passed the Environment Committee with both Democrat and Republican votes. One estimate says that Connecticut residents use nearly one billion plastic bags a year. This proposal is aimed at cutting down the litter and raising money.
The legislature’s Environment Committee has approved a bill that would make State Park Beaches no smoking zones. Smoking would still be permitted in the parks, just not on the beaches where cigarette butts kicked under the sand can be a problem.
But the bill that’s getting the most buzz is the one approved calling for a 5-cent per bag fee, really a tax, on one-time use bags. The ones at the supermarket, convenience store, and other retailers. It’s estimated the nickel fee could generate as much as twenty million dollars.
It would be a dedicated stream of cash to help pay for the maintenance and keeping state parks open so that they would be insulated from the coming state budget cuts. The Democratic co-chair of the committee, Senator Ted Kennedy Junior of Branford calls it a ‘win-win’ idea that will also reduce the use of the bags.
Republican co-chair Craig Miner of Litchfield also voted for the bill for many of the same reasons saying, “Taxes don’t make me feel good. It’s an uncomfortable place for me to be in.”
But the bill also would guarantee a source of cash for fish stocking as well as pheasant hunting programs that have been jeopardized by budget cuts last year. Miner added, “We’ve had a hard time, as a legislature, keeping the funding in place for park maintenance, hatchery maintenance, staffing at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.”
But despite the laudable goals, the vote for the ‘bag tax’ doesn’t sit well with many of of Senator Minor’s Republican colleagues. In Republican thinking this is putting the cart in front of the horse. “I am generally opposed to the ‘bag tax’ because I think the discussion needs to first revolve around our spending. We shouldn’t be having conversations about new revenue streams,” said Rep. Vin Candelora (R-North Haven) the Deputy House Minority Leader.
Another bill approved by the committee would phase out the nickel deposit on bottles and cans but there is another bill still working its way through the General Assembly that would double the nickel deposit to a dime.
The Pilgrims and early settlers would be appalled.
These kind of taxes hurt the poor the most.
I have never met a bag that wasn't reusable.
They don’t make Nutmeggers like they used to. Worst part, reusable grocery bags can be a bug laden menace if not cleaned. And I don’t know anyone who uses the dang things who bothers to clean them. Euw. This is a money grab, pure and simple.
1 BILLION BAGS A YEAR IN A STATE OF 3,500,000? THAT’S 6 BAGS A WEEK FOR EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN THE STATE. DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT, YOU THINK? THEN TOO THE MATH WAS DONE BY DEMOCRATS WHO ARE A LOW INTELLIGENCE GROUP WHEN IT COMES TO MATH ANYWAY. Sweetheart it is a tax,,. The democrats just put lipstick on the tax and you fell for it.
Connecticut the Nuts State
Are they doing this to keep Hillary out of Connecticut?
No it doesn’t. They are always exempted. California passed a bag ban....except for ebt users. So anytime you go to the market here and see someone not carrying bags you know they’re ebt users and getting them for free. I haven’t put one dime in anyone’s pockets since they passed it. I bought a case of plastic bags off Amazon and proudly carry them into the stores with me. lol
In Connecticut Republicans and Democrats are one and the same.I despise all of those S.O.B.’s.
They won’t be happy until they steal our very last dime.
Malloy’s mismanagement of CT has been epic. I don’t know the last governor to do so much damage to his state.
And packing groceries into those cloth bags are a pain in the ass.
When we lived in the NE corner of CT, we escaped to MA to buy cheaper gas( less tax) and RI to buy soda and water(no bottle bill). Looks like even more business for those states.
LaffRiot of the day!
Paging Andrew Cuomo
Even Cuomo can’t hold a torchlight to the state arsonist Malloy.
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