Maryland's clash of the bag-tax proposals

On the surface, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett's proposal to institute a tax on single-use shopping bags sounds a whole lot like the one that we've grown so accustomed to inside the ol' D. of C. It's the same amount per bag (five cents), there will be exemptions (like pharmacies, farmers markets and takeout joints) and revenue from the tax will go toward waterway cleanup and preservation. Of course, the one thing that Leggett's proposal has that the District's didn't is a competing bill, one that could find Montgomery County out of step with the remainder of the state.

Leggett's measure is being proposed at the same time as similar legislation in the Old Line State's House of Delegates. That bill, the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Consumer Retail Choice Act, serves the same purpose, but there are slight differences -- for example, while MoCo's bill would allow retailers to hang on to one cent of the charge, the Maryland bill would allow for one to two cents to be withheld by stores.

[Continue reading Aaron Morrissey's post at DCist.com.]

Aaron Morrissey blogs at DCist. The Local Blog Network is a group of bloggers from around the D.C. region who have agreed to make regular contributions to All Opinions Are Local.