by Tyler Arnold
A proposal to impose a 5-cent plastic bag tax will not receive a vote in Virginia Beach until Dec. 6, which is a little less than one month after the midterm elections.
The Virginia Beach City Council voted 8-1 to delay the vote. The tax would apply to disposal bags provided to shoppers at grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies. It would not apply to plastic used for wrapping or used to prevent damage or contamination.
Businesses would be obligated to collect the tax. They could either charge customers for the 5 cents or pay the tax themselves and offer the bags for free. Most of the revenue would be spent on environmental cleanup efforts.
“I’m determined to get this to a vote and I’m running out of time to do that because my term on council’s coming to an end,” Councilman Guy Tower said during a city council meeting. “This is a significant improvement.”
During the council meeting, some residents spoke against the measure and encouraged the city to seek other avenues for environmental cleanup, but Tower said many of those suggestions are not available to the city acting on its own and would require state action. He said the plastic bag tax is a measure that is available and one that has been effective in other jurisdictions after the state government passed a law that allows localities to impose these taxes.
Some business groups have opposed the taxes and claimed it would have a negative impact on their businesses by increasing the costs of shopping. However, it has garnered support from environmentalist groups who have argued that it would benefit the environment.
At this point, three counties and four cities have implemented plastic bag taxes in the commonwealth. All but one of these localities are located in northern Virginia with the other being Roanoke City, which is in southwestern Virginia.
Three other localities have plastic bag taxes going into effect Jan. 1 – one in northern Virginia and two in central Virginia.
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Tyler Arnold reports on Virginia and West Virginia for The Center Square. He previously worked for the Cause of Action Institute and has been published in Business Insider, USA TODAY College, National Review Online and the Washington Free Beacon.
Photo “Plastic Grocery Bags” by Peteruetz. CC BY-SA 4.0.
