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EmailSome of you (even those of us outside of Seattle) may have heard about the city’s plan for a grocery bag tax. In an effort to curb global warming, Seattle plans on taxing every plastic or paper bag used in a grocery or drug store $0.20. Supporters say it will eliminate waste and help defeat global warming. Opponents say it will hurt the poor and create an unnecessary bureaucracy, and they successfully delayed the implementation until a ballot initiative this August.
At first, I thought the whole thing was dumb: a waste of money to get people to do stuff most of Seattle makes an effort to do anyway. But I have changed my mind. The Mayor’s bag tax is actually brilliant. Allow me to explain:
Recent Seattle Times editions featured full page advertisements from the American Chemistry Council’s effort to stop the bag tax. In addition, the group has run a high profile ad campaign on local Web sites and radio. It makes common sense arguments about the extra city employees this will add and the possible exemptions for Wal-mart and other big box stores.
When Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels proposed this, he had to know that it would come to a ballot initiative. He had to know the plastic bag industry would fund a major advertisement campaign. He knew that this would benefit Seattle’s media companies to the tune of $1.4 million and help support a struggling industry in a time of economic distress. Assuming salaries of $50,000 and some additional jobs impacted by the additional economic activity, the Mayor single handedly saved or created 30-40 jobs by proposing this tax. Nor can this hurt the Mayor's chances in getting editorial endorsements.
I had no idea he was this smart, and I thank him for stimulating the economy and rescuing our media at this difficult time. What proposals will Nickels propose next year to stimulate the economy again?
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Comments:
Posted Tue, Aug 4, 10:22 a.m. Inappropriate
How cutesy and clever and snide the above piece is. I thought Crosscut was a promising idea, but it's devolving quickly into this kind of snarky stuff.
As to what the author says, why pass a law to compel what most of Seattle does anyway? Gee, I didn't know that most people at grocery stores use their own bags. Must be, I just go to all the grocery stores where about 90% of the people get bags with their stuff. Or here's what it is, the author is talking about the people who think it would be great to bring bags, but don't. Oh, that's why we don't need charges for bags, because lots of people have thought about it already!
Then, author says, opponents are concerned about how a bag charge would hurt the poor (despite the provisions for giving reusable bags away to people who can't afford the 99 cents to buy one). Like, the chemical companies intent on keeping making all those bags are spending their $1.4 million on behalf of the poor. But, people who don't like the inconvenience of carrying bags to the store can always tell themselves, it's not me I'm thinking about, it's the poor.
Just think, what if a poor person goes to the store and buys 5 bags of groceries? You might have to pay $1 every time, if you don't ask for the free bags that you get if you're poor. What a hardship! Don't we already impose enough on the poor by kicking them out of tent camps in our neighborhood? How hard-hearted to require poor folks to get free bags! Luckily for the American poor, they aren't in Western Europe, where you do have to pay for bags at the grocery store. And we all know how much worse off the poor people in Western Europe are.
Posted Tue, Aug 4, 11:38 a.m. Inappropriate
Laws aren't needed because most people already do the right thing? What an inspiration! Let's follow Mr. Shindler's logic for more laws and see how much government bureaucracy we can eliminate:
--Most people stop at red lights and seem to drive safely enough. Let's eliminate all those unnecessary traffic laws and then we can cut the police force! Yay! Savings to the taxpayers--cha-ching!
--Most countries don't invade us. Let's eliminate all those unnecessary international laws and treaties and get rid of all those military bureaucratic jobs. More savings!!
--Most banks and financial insitutions are honest and keep clean books--let's eliminate laws regulating commerce and banking and then we can cut all those bureaucrat...
Oh wait, we already did that last one. How did that turn out anyway?
Posted Wed, Aug 5, 5:19 p.m. Inappropriate
Mr. Shindler's main point is a good one; Seattle's citizens are remarkably compliant with policies that are coherently and consistently presented to them. When our reservoirs are low folks lower water use dramatically, compliance with the dog shit law is amazingly high. It might take a few years, but have patience, we will reduce plastic bag use without the tax.
Posted Wed, Aug 5, 5:40 p.m. Inappropriate
I loved the humor in this article.
While I continue to be a strong supporter of Mayor Nickels,
I am not a supporter of the bag tax.