When I first caught wind of a potential initiative to ban or tax plastic bags by Decatur’s Environmental Sustainability Board back in October, the post produced 87 comments of a heated back-and-forth about everything from the dangers of plastic bags to the dangers of banning plastic bags.

Well, now the Board is openly appealing to the Decatur population at-large to take a 5-question survey to get a better gauge of support for legislation that would either ban, tax or limit the use of plastic bags and Styrofoam by retailers.

Why plastic bags and Styrofoam?  Here’s the Board’s argument…

Estimates are that in the U.S. 60,000 plastic bags are used every 5 seconds. Less than 10% of these are recycled.

Polystyrene foam adds to the waste stream and presents a hazard for birds and other wildlife as it breaks up into indigestible pellets. The market now provides products that serve the same commercial purpose, are readily available and are less harmful for the environment.

How will/did you respond?

With Georgia’s 2011 legislative season well under way, the city of Decatur’s full list of legislators plan to hold a “town hall” style meeting at Decatur’s City Hall on Tuesday, February 1st from 6p-7p to hear from their constituents, according to a press release sent by Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield.

In addition to Rep. Benfield, Senator Jason Carter, Rep. Stacey Abrams, Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, and Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd will be in attendance to listen and respond to concerns of Decatur residents regarding this year’s legislative session.

What are some of the hot topics in this year’s session?  Well I asked Rep. Benfield that very question!  Here is her response…

The tax issue is the biggie. If the Tax Reform Council’s proposal moves forward, we’ll be looking at greater sales taxes and taxes on services. That will affect everyone who buys groceries and numerous services – from plumbing to selling girl scout cookies to prescription drugs. All of these would be taxed under the new plan.

We’ll likely see some water legislation with a focus on increasing supply through reservoirs.

And education is always a hot topic, with funding for the HOPE Scholarship and pre-K programs to be at risk.

Additionally, Rep. Benfield hinted that she’s working on legislation that will “help Georgia breweries expand their businesses…to allow breweries and brew pubs more opportunities to promote and sell their product”.  However, she’s still working on a draft of that legislation, so we’ll have to be patient for more details on that front!

For more information about any of this, you can contact Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield at (404) 964-7025.