Can we talk about REAL problems now?

NO NANNY STATE

NO NEW TAXES

NO NEW CITY BUREAUCRACY

The bag tax is counterproductive.

Focus on real environmentalism not phony measures designed to make ECB feel better about smearing anyone how happens to disagree with her (local newspaper columnists and 2/3 of Seattle's population, for example).

I CAN NOT WAIT TO VOTE!!!!!

Yep, it's "Democracy In Action", Capitalist-style...

lesson:
DON'T RAISE TAXES WITHOUT SUPPORT FROM THE PEOPLE YOU WORK FOR.

Two thirds of Seattle is opposed to this. It won't even be close.

But my local corner grocer can't give away a free bag for the stuff I just bought from their store?

Business logic at it's finest.

It isn't free. You pay for it. And as I bring my own bag, I'm also paying for your waste.

#7 - Newspaper is recycled at a rate of 73% and can be recycled 5-7 times. You could argue that recycling itself is a resource intensive task, but you could apply that logic to almost anything.

http://www.blogginggeorgetown.com/2008/08/bag-fee-backlash.html

IT'S AN OUTRAGE!!!

I CAN HARDLY WAIT TO VOTE FOR IT!!!!

Bag tax now!

"Merchants will retain 5 cents per bag for taxes and administrative costs. Businesses that gross less than $1 million will keep the entire 20-cent fee.

City revenue — 15 cents per bag — will be used for waste prevention, recycling, city cleanup and environmental education programs." (City of Seattle)

First of all this isn't a tax, it's a fee. If you bring your own bag, you wouldn't be charged. Unfair, you say? Given that the cost of plastic & paper bags are factored into your normal purchasing fee, you pay for it whether you use it or not. If this passed, then your grocery/pharmacy/ convenience store bill would be lower, since you'd be paying for what you picked off from the shelves, not what the grocer MIGHT use to bag it. I've used my own bag for more than 6 monthes, yet I still have to pay for everyone else's disposable bags. How is that fair or cost effective?

As it currently stands in the status quo, you ALREADY ARE paying a bag tax on your groceries, medicine and slurpies.

The difference between a tax and a fee is everyone has to pay the tax, whereas the fee is avoidable if you meet the condition(s). So really, if this fee does pass, your bill will go down. If it was a tax, your bill would go up.

More about the Green Fee:
http://www.seattle.gov/util/Services/Garbage/Reduce_Garbage_&_Litter/GreenFeeFoamBanProposals/index.htm

Even though this is an avoidable fee, not a pay-is-mandatory tax, what taxes are good? Is there any tax that people here actually like? When did people begin seeing taxes as punishments to the people rather than a way for a group of people to contribute to their own greater good. No one wants to approve funds for education, transportation, healthcare or environmental cleanup. These are fundamental to building and maintatining good economy, stable jobs, efficient commuting (aka less traffic), and healthier lives.

I know many people recycle on their own in Seattle, but how many use the products that are made from recycling? They also have several brands of paper towels and toilet paper made from 100% post consumer, recycled paper.

How good are our landfills? I understand that landfills are notorious for contaminating water supplies through groundwater contamination.
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1770&page=23

What is a [i]real[/i] problem? Is that kind of like preemptive strike vs preventative strike? Is the problem not real unless we are paying hundreds of $$$'s to visit the doctor for mysterious stomach aches or skin conditions and being diagnosed for health disorders? Or is it an 'out of sight, out of mind' sort of problem?

If the city was [b]actually[/b] imposing a tax, they would just up our sales tax and not give any back to the merchants. But that would have to be approved by voters, because it would be a tax, not a fee.

I know what I'm paying for---do you?

There was also talk of how the City would distribute grocery bags to homeless folks and/or coupons for free bags to food bank patrons, as both meal programs and food banks have to give their customers something to carry their to-go food items in.

This kind of begs the question - what good is your one City-allocated recyclable bag when SDOT clears your encampment and all of your belongings wind up in a landfill somewhere?