To the Editor:

This past Monday, October 28, Newtown’s plastic bag ban/paper bag fee ordinance went into effect. Passed on party lines by the Legislative Council, it goes beyond the actions taken by the state to tax plastic bags. It’s a burdensome mandate on Newtown’s businesses and places our businesses at a disadvantage relative to neighboring towns.

Absent this ordinance, Newtown businesses were free to offer plastic bags and/or free paper bags, if they desired. As of Monday, the fines for providing a customer a plastic bag or a free paper bag at checkout are as much as $100 per day, a serious hardship for local mom-and-pop stores.

Nothing about dictating a business’s service to its customers provides any benefit to Newtown’s residents or its environment. But, what it does do is undermine free exchange and send a message that Newtown is unfriendly to businesses.

To be clear, all Republicans on the Legislative Council voted against this ordinance, which had as its goal to change your innocent shopping behaviors using the force of law, but Republicans are not currently in the majority.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 5, when you will have an opportunity to prevent the Legislative Council from arbitrarily dictating your behaviors. I humbly ask you to take advantage of this opportunity and vote for me, Cathy Reiss, and my fellow Republican candidates, Charles Gardner and William DeRosa, for Legislative Council, District 1.

We will seek objective truth and base our decisions on Newtown’s best interests, rather than on political agendas or special interests.

Cathy Reiss

42 Obtuse Road, Newtown October 30, 2019