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Could Plastic Bag Ban be Included in State Budget? It Seems to be Gaining Momentum

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The sponsors of a bill to  ban single use plastic  bags in New York are optimistic that the measures will be part of the new state budget. But there are still details to be worked out, including whether there should be a fee on paper bags.

Lawmakers and environmental groups, stood outside the Assembly chambers, in a Capitol filled with groups making their last minute pitches for items in the state budget.

Assemblyman Sean Ryan, of Buffalo, held up a crumpled plastic bag, saying the overuse of the bags is an  environmental  scourge.

Buffalo is a town on Lake Erie, on the Niagara River, and every year we spend a lot of taxpayer’ dollars pulling these out of our waterways,” said Ryan. “They get into the storm sewers, they get into the sanitary sewers, they get into the flood control units.”

Assembly sponsor and Environmental Committee Chair Steve Englebright, says he’s been lobbying for the ban for decades.  He says now with both houses of the legislature controlled by Democrats, he believes it can finally happen.

I’ve waited forty years, and my hair is falling out,” he joked. “I don’t want to wait any longer.” 

Englebright says a fee on paper bags is also being discussed, but has not yet been agreed to.

Englebright, and the Senate sponsor Todd Kaminsky are from Long Island, where some local governments have their own rules banning bags or imposing fees on their use.  Kaminsky, who is also the Senate Environmental Committee Chair, says it’s possible that there will be an opt out for communities who either have their own plans in place or don’t want to impose a paper bag fee. And there could be a fee exemption for lower income New Yorkers.    But he says it’s all still being discussed.

I’m optimistic,” Kaminsky said. “The details are still being ironed out, but we’re getting here."

Kaminsky was asked whether he thought potential opposition to imposing a fee on paper bags might “scuttle” the plastic ban.

I’m hoping for no scuttling,” said Kaminsky. “I’m in the no scuttling camp,” he said.  

Liz Moran, the environmental policy director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, says a fee on paper bags could be a good tool to get the public accustomed to bringing their own shopping bags with them to grocery stores.

“And once they pay the fee, ‘oh, we have to bring a bag’,” Moran said. “People in other states have adjusted quite well.”

Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says a fee on paper bags was part of the discussion between herself,  Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Governor Andrew Cuomo at a closed door leaders meeting Wednesday morning.

“There has been a conversation that if you just ban plastic, then you’re flooded with paper, and how is that resolved,” said Stewart-Cousins.

Governor Cuomo, speaking on March 22, says he wants to include the plastic bag ban in the budget, and is open to “compromising” on whether there should be a fee on paper bags and whether local governments can opt out of the rules.  

I don’t want to lose the plastic bag ban for disagreement over the paper fee,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo’s Senior Advisor Rich Azzopardi, in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon says he’s “encouraged by the emerging consensus on this issue”, and says curbing the use of plastic bags, which he called an “environmental blight”, has long been a priority.

Opponents include the Food Industry Alliance of New York, the trade group for food retailers and wholesalers.  In a statement , the group says the ban would result in “severe consequences for New York’s retail food industry” and “further bolsters New York’s anti-business reputation”.  The group is not opposed to  charging fees on both single use plastic and paper bags available in grocery stores.  FIA President Mike Durant says  a fee based program in Suffolk County has worked well.