Say NO to the Paper Grocery Bag Tax

Last year, I wrote about a proposal by seven Newton City Councilors to slap a new tax (or “fee” as they call it) on paper grocery bags. Yes, seven Newton City Councilors have spent the last year navel-gazing on how to slap a new tax on people who shop for groceries in Newton. If our councilors want to give their own money to multi-billion dollar retail conglomerates like Albertson (Star Market’s owner), Amazon (Whole Foods’s owner) and Aldi (Trader Joe’s Owner) to virtue-signal how environmentally correct they are, that’s part of their pursuit of happiness. When they force consumers to pay multi-billion dollar retail conglomerates for the privilege of getting a bag to carry their groceries out of the store, it is clearly Newton City Council’s latest scheme for government-imposed happiness. Government is supposed to be a public institution that prevents theft, not an institution that commits theft directly, or use its power to aid retailers in committing the theft.

There are two things that surprise me about sponsors of the 2015 plastic grocery bag ban and now the 2019 paper grocery bag tax when I consider that this bill was sponsored by seven of the most left-wing Democrat councilors. First, I thought Democrats were supposed to be the party of the little guy standing up against millionaires, billionaires and huge corporations. Since when did Democrats start supporting corporate welfare for huge retailers by forcing consumers to pay retailers for carryout bags? Second, I thought liberal Democrats were supposed to be “pro-choice”, yet they took away the people’s right to choose which plastic bags best suited their needs.

I think a better use of the Newton City Council’s time would be to request a discussion with the Newton Comptroller, Newton’s external auditors and actuaries as to how to improve the timeliness for delivering Newton’s key financial statements, such as its CAFR (Comprehensive Audited Financial Report) and its OPEB (Other Post-Employment Benefits) actuarial valuation statements. Newton used to post its OPEB actuarial statements to its website within three months of the conclusion of its fiscal year and its CAFR within five and a half months as recently as 2016. This year, it took nearly seven months for Newton post its CAFR to its website and they have not even received their OPEB statement from the actuaries.

I still think it was wrong for Newton City Councilors to ban plastic shopping bags in the first place, especially since

• plastic bags only represent 0.5% of municipal waste,
• plastic bags are 100% recyclable whereas reusable bags are not,
• it takes 70% less energy to make a plastic bag versus a paper bag and
• A person has to use a reusable grocery bag at least 131 times before using the reusable bag has less environmental impact than a single plastic bag.

The City of Newton plans to spend $8.3 Million in FY 2019 to dispose of the trash and recyclable items that Newton residents no longer want. As plastic bags only represent 0.5% of municipal waste, I estimate that eliminating plastic bags would reduce Newton’s trash removal bill by a staggering $41,000 annually. Newton’s long-suffering taxpayers should realize that one can save more money and avoid draconian expansions in the size and scope of government powers by obtaining full-reimbursement ($9.9 Million/year) for the 600 out-of-district students who do not live in Newton, but attend Newton Public Schools rather than pursuing grocery bag bans and nickel-and-diming people who use paper bags.

If the paper bag tax passes, Newton residents should show their displeasure at this latest effort to nickel and dime us by shopping at the Market Basket in Waltham. Market Basket has lower prices than Star Market, Stop & Shop, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s and gives people the choice between a paper bag, a plastic bag or a renewable bag without having to pay for the privilege of getting a bag to carry out their groceries.