Over two-thirds of registered voters in Montgomery County oppose raising the bag tax to ten cents, a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll found, but the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed it anyway on Tuesday. The poll found that 69% of voters oppose the tax increase on paper bags, and that a minority 47% of voters support the plastic bag ban that was passed alongside it Tuesday. But, as the Council has done increasingly since defeating the Columbia Country Club with its 2009 Purple Line vote that brought no electoral consequences, the Council put its legislative steamroller in gear and floored the accelerator.
Interestingly, the Post declined to print the results of its bag tax/ban poll questions until the day after the Council voted, despite having taken the poll in late January, a clear attempt to tamp down opposition ahead of the Council vote. Tuesday's vote spoke deafening volumes about the deepening radical political trends in Montgomery County, trends that suggest the moribund jurisdiction is on-track for further and accelerating economic decline in the years ahead.
Montgomery County has acquired an international reputation as an anti-business jurisdiction. Not surprisingly, it has failed to attract a major corporate headquarters in over 25 years. Since the last decade, it ranks at or near the bottom by every relevant measure in economic development and job creation in the D.C. region, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It has long ago fallen out of the Forbes Top Ten Richest Counties in America list, as the wealthy flee to lower-tax jurisdictions in the region. In 2010, stores like Target and Magruder's in Rockville turned their interior lights down, posting apologetic signs explaining it was due to the County's new Energy Tax.
Tuesday's decision won't change the world's perception of us.
According to Wednesday's Post article, Councilmember Marilyn Balcombe (D - District 2) demanded Tuesday that the County begin to go after businesses "more aggressively" if they don't comply with the new ban and tax collection, despite the even-more-complicated regime of mandates imposed by the new law.
Okay, the Council is going to hound your business "more aggressively." But if you're thinking of starting a business, or moving it to Montgomery County, surely you can trust that the local Chamber of Commerce will have your back against the tinfoil dictators of the County Council, right?
Wrong.
The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce supported the Council's vote. Yes, you read that right. "We worry about Montgomery County being in a position that it's not competitive with surrounding jurisdictions [and] that's not what this bill does," Chamber spokesperson Brian Levine told the Post.
That's nice, but it's actually false, as Washington, D.C., Arlington County, and Fairfax County do not have bans on plastic bags, and only charge 5 cents per bag, not 10 cents. So putting us in a position that's "not competitive with surrounding jurisdictions" is exactly "what this bill does."
Imagine paying dues to a Chamber that kneecaps you in order to keep political favor with the County Council when the rubber meets the road. This isn't the first time. How many Chamber members wanted this bag law to pass? The Chamber's written testimony goes so far as to declare the organization "applauds the sponsor and co-sponsor for proposing this commonsense policy change." Applauds?! Such kowtowing to an rabidly-anti-business Council is embarrassing for a business organization. Yet again, we cede competitive economic growth territory to Northern Virginia and D.C.
It's bad enough that this is yet another tax hike, at a time when a majority of Montgomery County taxpayers are struggling with already-outrageous grocery prices, and Maryland is about to raise taxes and fees at the state level. But it's also another example of our megalomaniacal elected officials, who have a psychological need to control other people. Council President Kate Stewart (D - District 4) said the new bag law will "change behavior." Voters didn't elect you to "change behavior." They elected you to execute the basic functions of government in a competent manner, foster a favorable climate for business, provide necessary infrastructure and a functioning transportation system, and enforce the laws to protect the safety of the public - - all things this Council hasn't been able to do in this century.
18 comments:
What a shocker said by no one. Keeping voting this way folks. Great job. The voters care and have voiced their opposition but they passed it anyway. They absolutely do not care about you, what you have to say and what you want. Are you getting that finally? Watch MoCo council pass some kind of workaround to Trump's paper straw ban. I wonder what the voter opposition is to that folly. Probably over 80%.
You get what you vote for and MC voters are ignorant and apathetic. Like Moore proposing a 75-cent tax on every package delivery, including food, they are looking to punish the ones who can least afford and increasing the gap between rich & poor.
If you voted for Elrich, Moore, Alsobrooks and any of the current MC Council; take a look in the mirror to see the face of stupidity.
No one is listening to your mini violin.
Firstly, very few are going to comply with this. What does that mean? Well, for one thing, self-check at the supermarket. Who enters the number of bags used while checking out only to be hit for each? I sure don't. Second, this only makes Amazon richer. DE got rid of plastic bags at the grocery store and went back to old school paper. Fine. No one has an issue. What they don't have, however, is a sin tax for said bags like we do. You're a terrible person in MoCo if you ask for any bag according to their wacko logic. You'll bring your own nasty, dirty, bacteria-laiden resuable bags to the store or else.
Social engineering. No one so many people leave and head south.
The Plastic Bag Ban is a POWER GRAB by Bleeding Heart Liberals.
It was only a matter of WHEN, not IF the Ultra-Liberal County Council was going to Sign On !!
Anti-business, sure, but don't forget they're also anti-resident.
Talk about adding insult to injury! Going forward any "public meeting' means nothing. They don't seek input, they don't care about what the majority thinks. Vote 'em out. All of them.
These geniuses could not pass the paper bag test even if their life depended on it.
Depending on which ranking you look at, Maryland ranks in the 30-40 range of worst states to do business in. Moore's proposed budget will only make it worse, by raising income tax rates (most small businesses are pass-through entities that pay corporate tax as personal taxes) and also adding in a "temporary" dividend tax for the new 3 years.
The bag tax is yet another example of this nonsense. The existing bag tax at 5 cents was already found by MoCo's own auditor to result in over $7mln in lost revenue due to poor enforcement. Why increase the tax if they can't manage to collect it in the first place? And while the bag tax isn't a major thing, it's the combinations of all these little things that makes MoCo anti-business.
If you have a nasty, dirt, bacteria-laden reusable bag, that’s on you.
9:17 speak for yourself. There's already too many speaking for the new majority that don't have a clue.
Now MD delegates are on the the sugary drink tax, (ask Philadelphia City how their soda tax worked out). In typical liberal guise, they say it will raise 450M "for the children", nevermind that many people with buy the same products outside of Maryland thus reducing the projected windfall that Democrats will have already spent.
This just means that MD taxpayers will have to makeup the difference as always. Cause and effect is a lesson never learned by liberals. These Democrats don't qualify to be dog catcher.
6:58 - The reusable bags are all dirty and bacteria-laiden. Do you wash and sanitize yours after every use? Then you're in a small group. This is Nanny State nonsense. Nothing wrong with a paper bag. Dems never met a tax they didn't like and that just a fact.
Robert I agree with your point here but wonder why, if you take such an anti-establishment position on this issue, you historically have been reluctant to post some of my takedowns of the leftists' identity politics-laden worldview. Trump's election has facilitated the more conservative folks' ability to speak freely without fear of being cancelled. VP Vance just made this point in his remarks today in Europe. So get with the program please.
So you lie at the check out on the number of bags you use. That basically equates to shoplifting. Very nice. You're correct, crime is rampant in Bethesda.
10:42: Unfortunately, I am operating under the very anti-free-speech limitations the VP spoke of today. And under the close monitoring of critics who will jump on any excuse to say "racist!" With anonymous comments, I have no way to know if it's a sincere person like you, or a troll who has the nefarious intent of claiming I approved a "racist" post. So anything that looks like a statement someone can call "racist" is probably not going to be approved. What is allowed on X is not necessarily allowed on Google's Blogger. As it is, I have anonymous trolls from the MoCo cartel on Reddit and other forums calling me a fascist, a "Neo-Confederate," etc. just for posting about stores and restaurants opening and closing, because I dare to criticize our failed County elected officials on a factual basis.
I feel your pain Robert, keep up the good work.
" Montgomery County Council unanimously passed it anyway" you mean the 9 member group all of the same political affiliation praising to the heavens how wonderful "Diversity" is? How richly hypocritical of them.
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