Paper or Plastic? D.C. Taxes on All Disposable Bags

Earlier this week Washington DC council members passed a new tax in the amount of 5 cents on all disposable grocery bags. The decision was unanimous and as the council claimed it would greatly help the environment. Check out an article on the new tax below, courtesy of Wilja.com.

Mike Carter says that's "a good idea, if it's going to help the environment."

The tax impacts both paper and plastic disposable bags.

"I think it's a good thing if people are taxed on their bags," said Raisa Stebbins. "They'll stop using using bags -- better for the environment, better for the people."

The bill prohibits businesses from paying the fee on behalf of customers. Establishments caught not taxing customers face a $100 fine for the first violation, $200 for the second and $500 for the third violation within one calendar year.

"I like the concept of what they are trying to accomplish but as a general rule, I don't like taxes," said Peter Brown.

Four of the 5 cents from the new tax will go to cleaning up the Anacostia River. The other cent will go to businesses to off set the cost of implementing the new tax.

"It's an incentive for people to bring their own bags, so it could have a good effect," added Felicia Sonmez.

And if you do bring your own reusable bag, you won't be hit by the nickel tax.

D.C. Tax Protest Is No Tea Party

From the WashingtonPost.com:

First, a truck was to dump a million bags of tea onto tarps in Lafayette Square. But it ran into permit trouble and was turned away.

Then rally organizers showed up outside the Treasury Department. But authorities told them they lacked proper permission and could not set up a stage there.

Then it started to rain.

Next, somebody threw a box of tea over the White House fence, and the police evacuated the park.

Finally, the truck's driver, who had been wandering around town for hours after an overnight drive from Georgia, found a place to unload the cargo: 12 floors up in a downtown advocacy group. Without much of an audience.

The tea party protest of 2009 was a comedy of aggravation, but no matter. Hundreds of demonstrators ignored the missing truck, the dreary weather and the red tape and gathered in Lafayette Square yesterday for a rain-soaked but boisterous rally to protest high taxes, congressional earmarks and government bailouts.

They carried flags and signs bearing such sentiments as "Blackbeard Obama, King of the Tax Pirates" and "Obama Lied, Capitalism Died." In ponchos and under umbrellas, they cheered speakers and gave voice to a sense that the administration has the country on a path to ruin at the expense of the average taxpayer.

"I want my grandson to have as good a life as I've had and have the same opportunities," said JoAnn Abbott of Dale City, one of the rally organizers. "I don't want him stuck with a $12 trillion debt."

"The runaway spending has got to stop," she said. "The people on [Capitol Hill] are our employees. We don't work for them. It's about time our employees [started] working for us. The so-called stimulus bill? . . . The thing oinked, it had so much pork in it."