Bill to block New York City’s plastic bag fee is just more Albany overreach

For New York City politicians, the concept of “home rule” is an evergreen debate. Owing to a provision in the state constitution, every New York City law is subject to overrule by the state Legislature and governor, an archaic nuisance that leads to absurd optics like the mayor of the largest city in the United States begging a bunch of legislators from rural upstate for permission to run his school system.

The latest edition of the Legislature meddling in city affairs is the state Senate’s passage of a bill that would prohibit "any tax, fee or local charge" on carryout bags of any kind in the state – a response to the New York City Council’s recently passed legislation instituting a five-cent fee on plastic and paper shopping bags.

To clarify, the Senate bill would prevent every single municipality in the state from ever taxing or banning plastic bags – an environmental scourge that are almost never recycled and perpetuate the usage of fossil fuels. Moreover, a five-cent fee is hardly a death knell for the supermarket industry, as the fee would be kept by the grocers, not collected by the city. That, by definition, is not a tax.

The Senate bill is a gross overreach, and the argument in favor of it is beyond patronizing – that it disproportionately affects low-income New Yorkers. Brooklyn Sen. Simcha Felder, the bill’s lead sponsor, made that argument during Tuesday’s pitched floor debate, essentially saying that poor people are incapable of acquiring reusable grocery bags or changing their shopping habits.

While Felder and the bill’s supporters in the Senate are clearly carrying water for the plastic bag industry, there is a wrinkle to the City Council legislation that should not be overlooked – an amendment negotiated with Assembly Democrats to allow the fee to go into effect in February rather than October. As one knowledgeable Albany source told City & State, this change was made because state lawmakers were concerned that the Council bill would go into effect too close to the fall elections, potentially affecting vulnerable incumbents on Election Day.

Whether that amendment will be enough to sway the Assembly remains to be seen, but even if both state houses pass versions of Felder’s bill, it would be stunning to see Gov. Cuomo sign off on the legislation.

For all of Cuomo’s faults, his environmental policies have been largely well received, from instituting a moratorium on natural gas fracking to investing in renewable energy. There are rumblings that the governor’s staff, as well as the state Department of Environmental Conservation, is unhappy with the bills to prohibit bag fees, though Cuomo himself has not made any public statements against them.

Cuomo’s decision whether to veto such legislation could come down to a choice between preserving his environmental legacy versus dealing another blow to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a frequent foil for the governor, who is reeling from multiple federal investigations.

If you think that’s an easy decision for any pragmatic politician to make, you haven’t been following Cuomo.