psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com
BY PETER SUR | STEPHENS MEDIA
HILO — State lawmakers are mulling a new 10 cent tax on all checkout bags, both plastic and paper, in 2013.
One of several bills introduced in the current session of the Legislature to regulate the use of the bags, House Bill 2821 requires businesses to collect a 10 cent fee each time a customer is given a disposable bag at checkout.
Introduced by Hilo Rep. Jerry Chang, and co-sponsored by Big Island lawmakers Cindy Evans and Clift Tsuji, and Maui Rep. Joseph Souki, the bill may be headed for a hearing next week in the House Committee on Environmental Protection.
The bill has a long way to go before it reaches the governor’s desk. But even if it doesn’t pass, lawmakers can try again every year until it does. With bans on plastic bags enacted in three of the four counties — Honolulu is the lone holdout — lawmakers want to do something more to protect the environment
Asked why the bill targets both plastic and paper bags, Chang said Friday that “Plastic is pretty much banned.”
The 10 cent tax is described in the bill as an “offset fee.” Of this amount, six cents (rising to 7 cents beginning in 2014) would go to the state’s Natural Area Reserves Fund to be spent on watershed protection.
Two cents would go into a fund to be spent by the Department of Health for clean water and environmental protection purposes.
The remaining 2 cents or 3 cents would return to the business.
This bill would affect all businesses that provide single-use checkout bags, but it will not apply to customers on food stamps or those in the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
Businesses that reimburse customers for their fee in violation of the law will be responsible for a minimum $1,000 fine from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Kona Rep. Denny Coffman, chairman of the Environmental Protection Committee, introduced his own bill to tax the checkout bags.
Coffman’s bill, which was tabled in a hearing Thursday, was similar to Chang’s, except that it specified a $11 million payment to the NAR fund and $800,000 to the Department of Health. The committee preferred allocating the 10 cent fee by percentages, rather than specific dollar amounts, Chang said. Coffman could not be reached for comment.
“It’s got a long way to go yet,” Chang said. “Everything depends on the Finance Committee and the Ways and Means Committee.”
The idea of imposing a tax or fee on checkout has support in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, although lawmakers differ in how it should be implemented. Most of the other bills involve a 10 cent charge on each checkout bag. The effective date varies from July 1 of this year to Jan. 1, 2013.
psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com