Montgomery County Council Considers Limiting Scope of “Bag Tax”

An April 22 Washington Post article discusses a proposal before the Montgomery County Council to limit the applicability of the County’s current tax on disposable paper and plastic bags.  The current tax was passed by the County Council in 2011.

Montgomery’s nickel tax on disposable bags would be rolled back to cover only stores where food is sold under a bill to be introduced Tuesday by three County Council members.  …

The bill would impose the tax only on businesses where food represents  more than 2 percent of gross sales.  It would, however, continue to cover non-food items sold in those stores. The measure would repeal the tax on plastic food take-out bags.

The article also notes that while County statistics suggest an increase in the consumption of disposable bags since 2012, environmental groups maintain that the tax has had a “demonstrable impact” in reducing the number of bags collected along County waterways.