Troup’s Corner: Does Political Will Equal Political Capital

In last week’s edition, I compared and contrasted the ordinance to the “Obamacare” debates.  Frankly, the apparent aftermath doesn’t just stop with the debates.  The aftermath of the “BagOrd” compromise has provided as many fireworks as the run-up to its creation.

The Mayor and members of the green committee have been critical of the naysayers.  That is to be expected, since some naysayers provided a lot of noise during the debates.  Thankfully, folks like Jeff and Ira Green (New York Deli) made points that were relevant to the debate; furthermore, they got other merchants who thought they were “covered” to pay attention as well.

But it seems that folks like Jeff and Ira were the types of people who were targeted for criticism.  The criticism centered on what appeared to be a slew of eleventh hour questions.  Law is black and white to many folks.  Until it’s printed, people don’t know what they’re arguing for or against.  In the spirit of last week’s column, I’m reminded of ex-Speaker Pelosi’s “We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it” routine.

I also heard the Mayor interviewed on WCTR.  She made mention of the compromise items that were “in her notes,” yet omitted from the original wording of the ordinance.  I’m disappointed that she didn’t simply say “We had a draft of the ordinance.  The commerce sector had reservations.  We worked together to come up with an optimal solution.”  I think that would have earned her more political capital than playing the role of idealist, where simply advancing the agenda trumps all else.

Another problem for Mayor Bailey is that the State is weighing a bag ordinance.  Now these things take time, and are discussed in committee over several sessions.  I doubt we will see anything from Annapolis soon.  That’s probably a good thing.

I know the idealists out there would love to see the bags go bye-bye, but let’s explore a parallel universe where State law takes precedent.  The Mayor originally wanted to mimic DC’s law, which assesses a fee for bag use.  The State said that this amounts to an excise tax, which municipalities do not have sovereignty to enact.  Municipalities can enact behavior based ordinances.  That’s what we have now – comply or dish out “the benjamins.”

So the State would enact a new tax.  This would allow bags, in principle.  The Town ordinance disallows them.  The Town ordinance is subordinate.  Normally, subordinate laws are given the thumbs up, so long as they at least comply with the superior law.  Case in point, the minimum wage (e.g. Alaska’s was set in 2009 at $.50 higher then the Federal amount.  San Francisco’s is $9.92 versus California’s $8).  The problem is, we’re talking apples and oranges, and the State would hate to lose revenue.  Who wins that battle?

The easy answer would be to grandfather municipalities into compliance if they enacted their own ordinance.  For now, the issue of plastic bags continues to be granular, being beneath State government.  Some nations have been able to enact reduction legislation.  Ireland passed theirs in 2002.  As States continue to delay action, these subordination battles can be expected.

So why have States delayed action?  It may be the left-leaning cynical view that the plastics industry has purchased various State Legislatures.  It may be the right-leaning cynical view that ecology ideologues continue to move the target.  In the 70s it was global cooling.  In the 80s it was global warming.  In the 90s it was climate change.  Now we’ve refined it to manmade climate change.  Some can’t help but wonder if this is done for ecology’s sake, or to create a cottage industry (Green Certified this, Energy Star that).

Perhaps States are afraid of the unintended consequences.  No State wants to replicate New York City’s possum fiasco.  Or look at the Feds wishy-washy attitude towards the Chesapeake.  Call something a pollution diet and they’re all about it.  When it comes to “sciency stuff” like introducing Asian oysters, they punt on the issue (16 months after the report was due).  Coming back to bags, wasn’t there a time when ecology centered on recycling and saving trees?  Weren’t the plastic bags a cheap alternative to killing trees?  It’s fear of the unknown.  If they ban relatively cheap plastic bags, they can’t necessarily control how it will affect the masses (read: voters).

A State ban has been discussed since 2007.  They may now decide to act as Germantown and Kensington join the fold of banners.  If the State does act, did Mayor Bailey earn political capital?  Or did she expend it?  While we’d like to think that our electeds can walk and chew gum, the perception may be that all of the Town’s time went for naught in a time when high profile projects remain on the drawing board.