The Reincarnation of the Dime Bag

It's often said those who can remember the Sixties weren't actually there but I have memories and a birth certificate that would argue to the contrary. 

When the discussion started some months ago here in the Land of Steady Habits about a tax on the far-too-ubiquitous plastic bags that merchants use for our every purchase, and which we expect them to always do, to me it seemed like a variation on the ill-fated 10-cent deposit on recyclables that the previous Governor attempted to foist off on Nutmeggers to 'boost recycling.' 

Except at that time, what the Governor and Legislature forgot to tell us the voters, probably because they had changed that part of the recycling bill two years or so previously, is that all unclaimed deposit money from people buying a six-pack of beer, soda, water and just throwing the containers away thus forfeiting the deposit (and we're talking LOTS of dollars NOT couch cushion chump change) on recyclables that used to be split between the merchants offering the goods and the folks who did the redemption now went to the CT General Fund which has been cash-starved for a generation or so.

I arrived in Connecticut just as the then-Governor Lowell Weicker after promising during the election, I'm told, to never impose an income tax did just that (to balance the budget). Within a few short years, Connecticut skimmed 25% of all the money generated by slot machines at the two Native American casinos within the state's border, beyond the Connecticut River practically in Rhode Island as far as those in the capital city, Hartford, were concerned. We are talking about billions of bucks here but instead of eliminating the state deficit with the infusion of income tax revenue and casino monies, we're deeper in debt than we were yesterday. 

Never quite figured out how the unredeemed recyclables money was going to close that gap, but the idea went nowhere which was fine by me. My family recycles like nobody's business unless it really is nobody's business, having lived in Germany where recycling and reusing aren't nice to do it's the law. Humblebrag ended.

Which brings me to today and the rebirth of the dime bag. Nope, not that one; this one. 

Plastic bags were introduced ages ago to replace paper bags which will now make a brief return it seems. And don't get me wrong the elimination of the plastic bags is the right thing to do, even if I'm slightly jaundiced about the timeline and the explanation for why we're doing the right thing so slowly. 

Why is the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services Commissioner telling me about how they wind up in the waterways, in the sewers, in tree branches and inside of all matter of river and ocean life? Oh. Because the state is collecting money for each of the bags the store sells you rather than allowing you to continue to use plastic bags. The old follow the money mantra strikes again. 

I'm trying to figure out why we just don't tax the plastic bags the stores already have and stop cutting down trees to make the paper bags we'll make you buy now instead. Of course, if we wanted to save the Earth, or at least the part on either side of the Merritt Parkway, we could have just outlawed the use of plastic bags entirely so that we could shop the way millions of us already do with our own reusable bags. 

But what would the state of Connecticut get out of that? 

Something about 'Don't ask the question of you can't stand the answer' comes to mind. And while we're at it, I may as well put those tie-dyed headscarves, hobo shoes, mirrored sunglasses along with those old NRPS records in the recycling bin for curbside pick-up next week. Because you see, I do remember the Sixties, especially how they ended. With Volvo station wagons and Teva sandals.
-bill kenny