Hooray for grass roots activists the American Chemical Council

Well it looks like the American Chemistry Council/Coalition to Stop the Seattle Bag Tax got enough signatures to get a question on the ballot for next August.

The 20-cent bag fee for paper and plastic bags in Seattle will not take effect on Jan. 1. A referendum campaign to hold a citywide election on the fee has collected enough signatures to place the issue on the ballot next year.

In response, the city has decided to delay implementing the law until the vote can take place. Well I agree with the delay, it would be a waste of time and money to start up a program to support the law when it will most likely be overturned 8 months later. Bully for the plasti-holics.


Update:

I found this bit interesting (bolding mine):

The King County elections division on Monday verified the anti-fee coalition had collected 15,099 valid signatures out of 22,292 submitted. A referendum required 14,374, or 8 percent of the ballots cast in the last mayoral election. According to election records, the coalition spent $180,625 collecting signatures.

I have no idea what the normal percentage of invalid signatures is, but 23% seems awfully high. In fact, they only made the number they needed by 725 signatures. That's a pretty close margin.

As a comparison a statistical sample of the signatures gathered by I-1000 had about 10% disqualified although that is admittedly for a statewide initiative which may affect the percentage of invalid signatures. I don't know if I have a point here, just musing.

$180,625 to Fight 20-cent Bag Fee

The American Chemistry Council is apparently very committed to getting the Seattle bag tax/fee repealed. They have invested about $180,000 or about $8.00 a signature to get a repeal on the ballot in the next election. It looks like they are fighting it as well as fighting a similar fee proposal in the California State Legislature.

I've addressed this issue twice before and it's getting on my nerves more and more. This devastating fee or tax (I'm not sure when it changed to a fee from a tax) is entirely avoidable by investing in a set of reusable cloth or canvas bags. Seriously. All you have to do is go out and buy yourself some reusable bags. A $5.00 investment or less will do you for almost all of your shopping need and will have a positive environmental impact. In fact as a part of this new law Seattle is planning on giving out at least one free reusable bag to everyone in Seattle (the exact details of this plan haven't been forthcoming though and that is a bit worry some.)

It is true that even $5.00 is a trial to people who are only just making it or even not making it well. What I'd like to see is one of the local environmental groups get some money together and bulk buy bags to distribute in the lower income areas of the city. Something like this would eliminate what I see as the only legitimate objection to this fee/tax.