The tussle over plastic bags in Baltimore continues.
City Councilman Jim Kraft is refusing to hold hearings on a bill to ban businesses from handing out plastic bags until Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake commits to signing the bill, the same one she vetoed last year.
Kraft, who chairs the committee that would hold the hearings, should they happen, made the comments on WYPR’s Midday program Tuesday.
He said the proposal - this time proposed by Councilman Bill Henry - is the same one the council approved in November. That one started as a bag fee and was changed to an outright ban just before it passed. Rawlings-Blake said she vetoed the bill because the council did not hold a hearing on the last-minute change.
Kraft said he was frustrated with the entire process.
“I heard the bill eight times over the last nine years,” Kraft said, ”We have the same people show up every time we have the hearing. We hear the same arguments. We’ve been doing it over and over again and I’m not putting every[one] through it.”
Rawlings-Blake said she has not spoken with Kraft about the bill and is “more than willing” to have a conversation with him.