The Prince George’s County bag tax bill is dead for good this legislative session, and county lawmakers now must wait another year to try and pass a 5-cent tax on disposable bags.
The proposal that once died and was revived by the Prince George’s County delegates survived long enough only to die again in the House Environmental Matters Committee on Saturday, where it failed by one vote.
County Executive Rushern Baker, who supported the measure, was surprised that the legislation died after passing the Prince George’s House delegation by a 12-9 vote.
Local courtesy typically gives bills supported by a county’s delegation easy passage through committee – something Baker was expecting.
“That’s what we thought. Our contention all along was that if we got it out of delegation, we’d at least have a chance on the floor,” Baker said Monday. “Now I understand that there’s a bunch of taxes that they’re caught up on there, but as we emphasized to the committee, is this is not a tax, it’s a fee.”
The legislation was an enabling bill, meaning it would have been up to the county to implement the bag tax, not lawmakers in Annapolis.
Baker said he was hoping to join Montgomery County and the District, which each already have a 5-cent fee on disposable bags, in efforts to help clean up the Anacostia River.
“It’s going to be another year before we can actually go back to the legislature,” Baker said.
