That's our mayor! See an idea someone else has and copy it...all as a way to provide more income for an overbloated, wasteful budget.
Here's his letter to city council:
Um...I don't thrown those bags away. I recycle them in those nice new recycling cans provided for by the City. Oh - and I pay a 'garbage' tax for the privilege of doing so...
And weren't those bags supposed to be the green initiative that saved all the trees?
And if we had enough police to enforce the littering laws, we wouldn't have the problem of litter from these bags or anything else...
Ouch...my head hurts!
10 comments:
What is an 'advanced recovery fee'? Is that a 'fee/tax' on point of use (the store that bags your purchase)? Won't that just push people near the edges (or who work outside) of the city to shop outside the city where such an asinine fee is not being charged?
Great point, DeeDee ... bet the suburbs will LOVE welcoming Toledo shoppers...shortly followed by Toledo businesses...
Maggie,
Hey, I use those bags for used kitty litter all the time, so my bags get two uses.
And whenever the opportunity presents itself, I use a newspaper section with a picture of our "beloved" mayor to dump the litter box "duty" on to...
For me, it's therapeutic ;-)
We don't have that issue down here. We don't even have a mayor that has to constantly be in the limelight.
How do you stick your tongue out using a keyboard? :)
Seriously? Carty has never had an original thought in his life. To expect him to develop one now is foolish daydreaming.
This is just one more of those examples of outlandish and nonsensical 'emergency' legislation that is taking its' toll on the residents of Toledo.
Apparently inanimate objects such as these bags "act to litter our streets." That's funny, I thought citizens littered.
Secondly, "I will soon present for study and passage" Passage. Forget what the results of the "study" might show, his highness demands passage. The truth is no true "study" of the value, effects, or logic of such a fee program will be undertaken.
I bet Toledo is in the running for a "greenest city in America" award Carty has signed us up for. Much like the "business friendly mayor" award he just got.
HA
TAHL
Maggie,
Heaven help us if we start looking to NYC for our legislative initiatives, as they have justed pushed through a law overruling term limits for the office of mayor in order to allow their current one to remain in office.
OMG!
No matter how tempting it is, let's not let all of the different uses of these bags distract us from focussing on the mayor's convoluted logic about why citizens should be taxed for using them.
The mayor has never had nor does he have his own vision for the city of Toledo other than whatever fosters sentimentalism (emotionalism)a.k.a. "cheerleading" where there's more cheering but very little leading.
The mayor looks around the country and picks what other cities are doing.
I think that if the mayor keeps getting away with plagiarizing the policies of other cities, it is self-defeating to what he is trying to do. Why?
First, it's because Carty is emotionally attached to the "Jamie Farr-Tiedke's" era of Toledo.
Those are the days the mayor wants to restore and that is the renaissance he seeks. That was before my time, but I suspect that those times weren't as rosy of a picture the mayor always wants to paint.
However, when other cities' policies are adopted here, the city will lose its own unique identity. Toledo will begin to look just like whatever cities he steals ideas from which is not necessarily a bad thing if the goal is to rid Toledo of plywood its windows.
The problem is not just that Toledo will look like this city and that city and that city all rolled into one. The problem is that the mayor has 5 star tastes with a 2 star budget and guess who is forced to pay the difference?
Since we are forced to pay the difference if we choose to stay here, guess how the mayor has to "market" and "sell" his ideas? He has to resort to the techniques of infomercials of "bait and switch", and "if you order in the next 10min we'll throw in ABCDEFG!" The mayor resorts to using the same tactics he uses--mistruths, half-truths, and outright lies."
I don't like Kroger on Monroe at Secor anyway...isles are too narrow.
So I will shop at Kroger on Syvania and King AFTER first going to the Anderson Market.
HOWEVER, COSTCO WILL BE MY FIRST STOP. No bags...just boxes...I wonder if Carty knows?
Ain't America great?
from MichiganVotes.org
2008 Senate Bill 1611 (Ban non-recyclable or non-compostable plastic grocery bags)
Introduced by Sen. Ray Basham on November 6, 2008, to prohibit the use of non-recyclable or non-compostable plastic grocery bags by retailers, subject to civil fines of $5,000 to $10,000 per day. The bill mandates that retailers must submit reports by the end of 2011 on progress toward compliance. The full ban would go into effect in 2012, and a partial ban begin in 2010.
2008 Senate Bill 1610 (Impose a 15-cent per-bag tax on plastic grocery bags)
Introduced by Sen. Ray Basham on November 6, 2008, to impose a 15-cent per-bag tax on plastic grocery bags.
So if I'm to understand this. Many of the same people that voted for the levy issues on Nov. 4th without blinking an eye, are whipped out of shape over a tax on a bag? Present company excepted of course.
Strange how many of them suddenly get it.
But we shouldn't fret. I think the problem will be in the details. Think about it. How do you actually monitor the number of bags a store uses? Is the City going to come up with a form to report how many bags a store used? It would be an accounting and audit nightmare. Not to say it can't be done, but they have enough trouble doing what they do now, let alone a new type of tax that they can't just place on one of their current billing systems.
As an example, I think the garbage fee is tacked on the water bill. I may be wrong since I don't live in the City. The garbage fee is able to piggyback on a current billing system. A new tax like this would almost have to piggyback on the quarterly withholding or yearly income tax.
It also creates an audit nightmare.
I could see some unscrupulous store owners charging for the bag fee, then under reporting the actual number. It would also lend itself to errors.
What is most important is that we are forgetting that it's another example of a tax compliance burden placed on business by the City. A burden that a business simply won't have by moving a few feet outside the city limits.
So, maybe they should change the Toledo motto to "Toledo, a good place to grow flowers, but not a business."
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