Despite county effort, plastic bag tax not coming to Lynbrook, East Rockaway

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Lynbrook resident Susan Brockmann stood outside the Nassau County Legislative Building in Mineola on May 7, wearing 500 plastic bags. She was there to support Democratic Legislator Debra Mulé’s bill to charge 5 cents for single-use plastic bags.
“It’s such a good visual,” Brockmann said of her plastic get-up, adding that the average person uses 500 plastic bags per year, and the annual total in New York state is about 23 billion. The bags, Brockmann said, get stuck in trees or fly into the ocean, where marine creatures can ingest them and die from the chemicals used to create them.
Mulé proposed legislation to limit the use of plastic bags in the county by having businesses collect a fee for each one given out. Under state law, the county cannot dictate how a business spends the revenue, Mulé said. But, she said, the stipulation would have benefits.
“That’s what makes it work,” she said, “because people are not happy that retailers get the extra 5 cents, so they bring their reusable bags.”
The bill includes exemptions for plastic bags that are used to wrap meat, newspapers and dry-cleaning. People using the New York State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the state Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children would also be exempt from the fee.

Inside the Legislative Building, Brockmann sought out her legislator, William Gaylor III, a Republican from Lynbrook, to see if he would support it.
Gaylor, who represents District 6 — which comprises Lynbrook, Malverne, North Lynbrook, Valley Stream and portions of Rockville Centre, Hewlett, Franklin Square and Woodmere — said he would need to read it first.
Brockmann’s effort is similar to a push by students from the Lynbrook School District. In April last year, they presented the village’s board of trustees with letters urging officials to tax plastic bags. Then-Mayor William Hendrick instructed Village Attorney Peter Ledwith to research the law and advise the board about possible legal action.
The issue was not addressed again before Hendrick died in October, and Ledwith retired from his position last month. Ledwith’s son-in-law, Tom Atkinson, has since been appointed the village attorney. Mayor Alan Beach, who took office last October, said the board has decided not to impose a 5-cent fee, but is “going to encourage the use of reusable shopping bags.”
At Monday’s board meeting, the topic was brought up publicly for the first time in more than a year, when Deputy Mayor Hilary Becker asked Department of Public Works Supervisor Phil Healy about possibly recycling the plastic bags.
“You can recycle them at some locations in the supermarkets,” Healy said. “The commodity contract we have with the contractors, they don’t want those. There’s no value to them. . . . There’s no commercial recycling use for those plastic bags you get at the stores.”
In East Rockaway, the board of trustees did not consider implementing a plastic bag law. “The board believes this would not be prudent in our one-square-mile village —one of the smallest municipal entities on Long Island,” Mayor Bruno Romano said in a statement. “A village ban or user tax would be a barrier to local commerce, financially impairing many of our small businesses.”
Though Lynbrook and East Rockaway are unlikely to voice their approval of a countywide measure, it has the support of County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat from Baldwin, who expressed her appreciation for the bill at a May 7 news conference. “Minimizing the use of plastic bags is a logical and important step in keeping our bays and oceans free of the perils of plastic bags and the dangers they pose to our marine life,” Curran said in a statement. “I support Legislator Mulé’s bill and have great optimism that it will be well received and implemented as soon as possible.”
However, Richard Nicolello, the Legislature’s presiding officer, announced that the bill would not be brought up for discussion. “We are reluctant to add another burden on our taxpayers,” he said. “In addition, Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo has a statewide proposal pending in the State Legislature. Therefore, we will not take any action on the Democratic caucus’s proposal at this time.”
The county bill is based on similar ordinances in Long Beach and Suffolk County. Long Beach was the first municipality in Nassau to implement such a fee, in 2016. When the law first took effect, businesses were required to post signs alerting shoppers about the cost. The fee is also levied on any single-use plastic bags given out at city-run facilities, city-sponsored events and any other event held in Long Beach.
Under the Suffolk County measure, stores — such as drugstores, supermarkets, convenience stores, food marts, apparel stores, hardware stores, stationery and office supply stores and food service establishments — have to fine shoppers 5 cents per plastic bag. “One of the things the 5-cent fee does is it causes people to pause and ask if they really need this,” Suffolk County Legislator William Spencer, a Democrat from Centerport, said. Spencer sponsored the bill in Suffolk’s Legislature.
He said that since the law took effect at the beginning of the year, the number of Suffolk residents using reusable bags had increased from 5 percent to 50 percent. “It’s worked quite well,” Spencer said. “It’s made a big difference.”
Other municipalities have considered similar laws over the past few years. In fact, Mulé said that she introduced the bill because when she was a Village of Freeport trustee, Curran, then a legislator, spoke to the board of trustees about imposing a fine on plastic bags. But, Mulé said, “It wasn’t the right time for the village to do it.”
“I think it’s very difficult for smaller entities to do it,” she added, citing concerns that people would shop in neighboring communities rather than pay the fee.
If passed, the county law would take effect on Jan. 31, 2019.

Anthony Rifilato and Ben Strack contributed to this story.