ALBANY – New York City’s 5-cent bag fee has been sacked.
Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday signed a bill blocking the city from imposing the fee for at least a year, saying it makes more sense to come up with a program statewide.
“The law was drafted so that merchants keep the five cent fee as profit, instead of the money being used to solve the problem of plastic bags’ environmental impact – essentially amounting to a $100 million per year windfall to merchants,” Cuomo said.
“A $100 million bonus to private companies is beyond the absurd. The windfall profit to private entities is unjustifiable and unnecessary.”
The city collects an average of 1,700 tons of plastic bags each week, costing $12.5 million annually in disposal costs. Statewide, New Yorkers use an estimated 23 billion plastic bags annually.
The bags pollute the state’s waterways from the Adirondacks to Long Island and get stuck in trees on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, Cuomo said.
“A statewide solution is the most appropriate way to address this issue,” he said.
The governor said he would create a task force to consider whether to ban plastic and paper carryout products, tax plastic bags or supply residents with reusable bags.
The “bag tax” bill passed the City Council 28-20, only to be blocked by the state legislature.
It was scheduled to take effect Wednesday.
Several state lawmakers, including Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda, a Bronx Democrat, Sen. Marisol Alcantara of Manhattan and Sen. Ruben Diaz of the Bronx, proposed a possible alternative.
They want to offer a 3-cent instant tax rebate to shoppers who use their own bags.
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