Brooklyn pols lead last-ditch effort to stop city’s soon-to-be-implemented bag fee
With just about a month to go before the city’s controversial bag fee is scheduled to go into effect, a group of elected officials, including a bevy of Brooklyn pols, is hoping to pass legislation on the state level that would permanently derail the fee, which proponents contend would reduce the waste stream but which opponents claim is just a hidden tax.
Brooklyn State Senators Simcha Felder and Marty Golden and Assemblymembers Peter Abbate and Nicole Malliotakis were among a bipartisan group of legislators who gathered on Sunday, January 15 on the steps of City Hall to announce the legislation, of which Felder is a prime sponsor, that would stop the city from implementing the fee, due to be charged beginning February 15.
“New Yorkers are tired of being nickel and dimed,” asserted Felder, who demanded, “Why are we picking on the most vulnerable New Yorkers to drive them out of their minds, and tax them over and over again?