NYC Bag Fee Struck Down By Governor Cuomo

NEW YORK CITY, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation Tuesday scrapping New York City's five cent charge on plastic bags, due to go into effect this August. However, Cuomo also said he will create a task force charged with crafting new, state-wide legislation by the end of the year to reduce bag waste.

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The New York City Council passed the bag fee bill last May, but its implementation was backed up several months following protests from Albany lawmakers.

The city's bill would have charged 5 cents for most non-reusable paper and plastic bags, with the stated aim of reducing their use. According to official estimates, 91,000 tons of single-use paper and plastic bags are sent to New York City landfills annually, while more than 9.3 billion plastic bags are used in the city each year. The legislation was championed in the Council by Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander and Manhattan Councilwoman Margaret Chin.

But this month, the State Assembly and State Senate passed legislation effectively killing the law, describing it as an unfair burden to place on consumers. Staten Island Assemblyman Michael Cusick and Brooklyn State Senator Simcha Felder were leaders of the Albany effort, and Cuomo signed their bill yesterday.

In a signing statement issued by the governor, Cuomo described non-reusable bag waste as an issue that needs to be addressed state-wide, writing that 23 billion plastic bags are used in the state each year.

But the city's law, he said, while "an earnest attempt at a real solution," was "deeply flawed."

Cuomo said he was most concerned with the fact that city merchants would keep the 5 cents charged to consumers. The governor said that meant the law would generate a "$100 million per year windfall to merchants," money that would not be "used to solve the problem of plastic bags' environmental impact."

For their part, Lander and other city proponents said their aim was to convince New Yorkers to bring reusable bags when they went shopping, and hence avoid the bag fee entirely.

Allowing merchants to keep the fee also meant the city could argue the legislation wasn't a new tax, which NYC doesn't have the right to institute without Albany's approval.

"If the council needed the political support of the merchants to pass the bill, a $100 million price was too high a cost to pay," Cuomo wrote. "If the city was not empowered to allow a fee to go to a government entity as it exceeds their legal authority, then that necessitates state action. In either case, the windfall profit to private entities is unjustifiable and unnecessary."

However, Cuomo expressed sympathy with the law's overall aim.

"As a New Yorker, I have reeled in numerous plastic bags while fishing in the Hudson and off Long Island," he wrote. "I have seen plastic bags in the trees while hiking in the Adirondacks and driving down the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. It is a statewide challenge. As such, a statewide solution is the most appropriate way to address this issue."

The governor then said he would create a task force to present new legislation by the end of 2017.

"This Task Force will be different than usual as this matter requires expeditious action," Cuomo wrote. "I will ask the Senate and the Assembly to appoint Co-Chairs with me so that the recommendation can be quickly legislated. Local governments and stakeholders will also be included."

In a joint statement following Cuomo's decision, Councilmembers Lander and Chin defended their bill, stating that "carryout bag fees are the right policy."

"It is disappointing that the State Legislature and the Governor killed NYC’s Bring Your Own Bag Law, which was democratically adopted by the City Council after two years of hearings, reviewing evidence, reusable bag giveaways, and public debate," the members wrote. "By nullifying only New York City’s law – but leaving nearly identical laws in Suffolk and Nassau Counties intact – the Legislature has put in jeopardy the basic concept of 'home rule.'"

"Despite this loss, we are proud of the coalition we have built, which took the issue of plastic solid waste...and raised it to the very highest levels of New York State government," they concluded. "Someday, not soon enough, but someday, we will win action to get rid of them.”

Photo by Kate Ter Harr