BROWNSVILLE — After convening with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the City of Brownsville has agreed to remove the fee from the plastic bag ordinance.
Once the Office of the Attorney General approves the settlement of the lawsuit, it will give the city 30 days to amend the ordinance.
Paxton claimed the city’s ordinance not only violated Texas Health & Safety Code but also imposed an “illegal sales tax” on Brownsville residents.
“I felt (the fee) was a valid approach to the (environmental) issue, and I don’t see it as a tax. I disagree with the assessment of the Attorney General,” Mayor Tony Martinez said.
Even so, the city went with the safest option in this case, Martinez said.
That leaves the city commission with a new challenge: determining what to do with the ordinance after it is amended.
“We don’t know. We can approach it like Austin did, but then again, the legal challenge there comes from people who manufacture the plastic bags, so it’s an interesting situation,” Martinez said. “People are looking out for their political or monetary interests rather than a view of keeping the world safe and being kind to Mother Nature.”
Until the city formally modifies the ordinance, the fee is still in effect.
Rose Timmer, executive director at Healthy Communities of Brownsville, said she is unsure whether the removal of the fee means more litter down the line.
In most cases, putting a value on the bags discouraged people from throwing them out into the street, Timmer said.
“Once we put a value on it, it became something you wanted to keep and not just throw away. Hopefully, people’s habits have changed and people will continue to bring those reusable bags,” Timmer said.
The bag ban fee raised more than $4.4 million since 2011, said Roxanna Rosas, city spokeswoman.
The fee has paid for items such as sanitation trucks and street sweepers, and Brownsville Beautification Committee projects.
“The city has always been very much in support of environmental initiatives, and moving forward we will actively be searching for grants and are going to keep pushing environmental projects and initiatives despite the fee being removed,” Rosas said.
Martinez called the initiatives a “terrific success.”
“It was actually a very wholesome, very community-minded effort, and I think the majority of people — at least the ones I hear from — thought it was a good idea,” Martinez said. “I find it disturbing that the Attorney General is wasting time and taxpayer money to go (after this).”
Martinez will continue to reuse his own plastic bags and urges the community to do the same.
“The best thing for us would be to sit down and say, ‘We care, and we want to leave the world a better place for my kids.’ You should be taking care of the water and nature, especially in Brownsville,” Martinez said. “With the resacas, all these ducks and pelicans (and other wildlife), how pretty is that?”
