Slog

The fact that voters stand a good chance of repealing this really has your knickers in a twist, doesn't it?

Another attack on the nanny state!

Maybe the city should learn to spend more time building better transit options instead of sorting through our trash and banning plastic bags.

I will vote to repeal!!

No matter what somebody wants to do, there will be debate. The city council sets the agenda here though so they control the debate.

Even if it went through without a hitch it would have been pissing on a forest fire. They set their sights so low with this bag tax that I have a hard time feeling sorry for them. If it gets overturned by the voters it is going to prove that our city council is so inept it can't even take care of the most symbolic business.

It would be great if they could spend some time working on real problems, but I know that they are going to have their hands full fighting to make sure that keys to the city aren't going to be revoked.

If the object was to "save the environment," then why didn't the proposed ordinance ban plastic bags at electronics stores, hardware stores, auto parts stores, fast food outlets, restaurant take-out?

Why didn't it ban other kinds of plastic packaging that end up in our waste stream, like the odious, ubiquitous blister pack?

We all know why. It's because it would have been unenforceable, and because some fool thought if they put it only on stores that sell food, people would be FORCED to comply because hell, everybody needs to eat.

This is not about saving the environment. This is not about reducing the effect on plastic on our waste stream. If it was, then we would be banning all plastic packaging, wouldn't we? Well?

This is about compliance and behavior modification. People get this.

Good. The bag tax is poorly defined. What about the bag for my prescriptions from Safeway? Or the meat I buy? The goal should be to recycle, not to give a free handout to corporate interests.

Poorly written legislation leads to results like that.

Who gets to keep that money? The grocers. Did we see any of their lobbyists about? Don't think so.

Regardless of who funded the petition drive, the fact remains that thousands upon thousands of Seattleites signed on to get the repeal on the ballot. The way you make it sound, all of Seattle's citizens are fine with the bag tax, and the eeeeeeevil plastic industry got the repeal on the ballot through money and force of will. That characterization is a bit disingenuous.

Personally, I could give a shit either way (since I already use reusable bags), but I'm aware of many, many people who think the tax is a bad, or at least useless, idea.

Wait, this thing won't be on the November ballot? So now we go from it taking effect Jan 1st 2009 to voting on it in August 2009?

So where's Ecce Homo and John Balio? The rest have come out against the bag tax; it seems odd not to have them here.

Me, I'm lukewarm on the bag tax, but strongly anti-libertardian, so there you go.

woot! i'm gonna go feed my reusable shopping bags to a sea turtle.

We need to impose a 20-cent tax on newspapers and weeklies as well.

@4 the reason it isn't put towards electronic stores, or book shops, or most other retailers is that most people don't buy an ipod or a pair of shoes on a weekly basis.

@ 11:

Plastic is plastic, though, isn't it? It's all the same to the poor damn fish who chokes on it though, isn't it? That's exactly my point. This doesn't do a god damn thing for the environment. This is a feel-good measure for idiots.

@12 you're right plastic is plastic, but as my Dad used to say: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."
Charging for plastic bags at super markets and quick stops is the first step in making a serious move away from using plastic bags.

To the plastic promoters on this board... Just look around. Plastic bags are friggin *everywhere* - they're stuck in trees, they pile up in alleyways, they're a massive toxic nuisance.

So you can "nanny" this and that, but ultimately, we're all in this together, it's time to take a leadership position.

@14: I also see newspapers, pop and beer cans, fast-food wrappers, etc., in trees, piled up in alleyways -- *everywhere*. Let's tax 'em all.

Let's tax latte-lids, too!

latte lids are a fright - good idea

ECB - they do not answer the phone - big time org???

Hooray! Who wants a bag? Bags for everyone! How about a nice convenient bag for your groceries? Baggity-bag-bag-bagaroo!

I love this. Hopefully when/if the legislation passes it will be much better defined and some larger portion of the proceeds will go to helping the environment.

The current setup just seems to increase administrative bloat and grocery store profits.

Not such a good sign when in one of the most progressive cities in the country people are unwilling to accept a really insignificant convenience that is a step, if a meager one, in the right direction enviromentally.

Questions for the gripers: if you can't handle a bag tax do you imagine those others of your mindset are going to jump on board the 'more important things' that likely involve considerably greater inconveniences/financial burdens? It is all well and good to 'think it is useless' but let's see the data about its alleged uselessness instead of just making assumptions. Has Ireland's bag fee for instance had a significant impact on the waste stream there? I think if civilization as we know it has even a remote shot of surviving the 21st century a great deal more nannying from the state will have to be in order.

We're not willing to accept a tax increase hidden under the guise of token environmentalism.

Not only am I voting for the repeal, I will be voting against any future bond, levy, or assessment for the foreseeable future.

When government gets too soft, it starts looking for busy-work projects that only seem to harass the average citizen.

@22,

Yeah, and they also go on taxpayer-funded junkets to National League of Cities meetings to schmooze other elected officials from around the country to come up with intrusive, picayune bullshit like this (that, not coincidentally, expands their power and provides a new way to extract money from the citizenry).

This is going to make a great City Council campaign issue next year. Incumbent X can't get anything substantive done, is deep in the pockets of developers, and is so out-of-touch with the lives of average citizens that they're willing to waste their time and your money on this sort of feel-good nonsense.

The ads practically write themselves....

After the easy success of the revision Strip Club regulations by an iniative from the Strip Clubs, it is a wonder that more businesses haven't lined up to line item veto their regulations by initiative.

The $180,000 this group has spent could have paid the tax for 900,000 bags.

Cool - that's slightly less than two each for every Seattle citizen, which should get us all through, um, Friday...or maybe Saturday...