New York state lawmakers in recent years have surrendered some of their policymaking and taxing powers to the executive branch. With the 2024 legislative session coming to close, they’re poised to go even further and turn those powers over to an organization outside of government entirely.

“The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act” (S4246/A5322), a proposal to reduce the amount of packaging in landfills, may be voted on some time this week. Among other things, it sets targets for increasing the use of reusable or recyclable packaging by having businesses (“producers”) pay a “producer fee” based on the type and amount of material involved in delivering their product to consumers. That money would be used to change packaging practices, conduct public education and fund local recycling programs.

For local governments that offer trash collection, the proposal will likely ease some costs by reducing the waste that must otherwise be handled. Industry groups on the other hand have raised concerns about costs (particularly on consumer products that are themselves packaging, such as food containers) and compliance issues.

But what makes the legislation especially remarkable, and objectionable, is that the money wouldn’t be controlled by state government. Instead, a nonprofit “packaging reduction organization” (PRO) would be given a ten-year monopoly on working with producers—that is, setting and collecting the tax-like fees on what they sell in or into New York—and then deciding how the money gets spent.

How much money? The sponsors haven’t said, and the legislation doesn’t put a cap on what would be collected. But given that the goal is to deter companies from using certain products the producer fees presumably must be high enough to threaten profitability and induce changes (or “eco-modulation”). A 2021 study put the amount around $800 million per year. The cost to implement planned recycling programs and related activities would be increased by the bill’s “labor peace” language designed to push the packaging reduction organization and its vendors into using only unionized labor.

At present, the Legislature is already allowing the state utility regulator (the Public Service Commission) to collect and spend what will soon be several billion dollars annually outside the regular appropriations process. Lawmakers are also allowing the Department of Environmental Conservation to impose a tax-like allowance system on fossil fuels which will collect—and spend—$3 to $5 billion annually beginning next year. When PRO’s producer fees are factored in, it’s conceivable that more than 10 percent of New York state taxes could soon be collected—and spent—outside the Legislature’s purview.

Members of the Senate and the Assembly are elected and paid $142,000 annually, plus benefits and expenses, to be the state government’s board of directors: to make decisions about state policy and to fund and oversee the state agencies that implement it. Allowing agency bureaucrats to seize its policymaking and taxing powers has damaged the Legislature as an institution and, more importantly, weakened state government’s accountability to the public by making the election of lawmakers less meaningful. Forking legislative powers over to an unelected organization outside government should be the last thing on any lawmaker’s mind.