November 24, 2014 | VOL. 50, No. 47
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS | westfaironline.com
BAN ON PLASTIC BAGS CONSIDERED FOR COUNTY
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BOTTOM LINE STARS • 13
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Small Business Health Options Program marketplace, or SHOP. A statewide total of 3,106 businesses with 50 or fewer employees enrolled with insurance carriers offering plans on the exchange. Those businesses enrolled just under 9,800 employees statewide. In Westchester County, 323 employees were covered in 2014 on group plans purchased on the exchange. Of those, 228 employees, or 71 percent, are insured by a fast-growing and expanding nonprofit player in the market, Health Republic
ou won’t be asked, “Paper or plastic?” at the supermarket register in Westchester County if a proposed law banning plastic bags gets through the Board of Legislators. County Legislator Catherine Parker, D-Rye, recently introduced a bill that would prohibit retailers in Westchester from providing shoppers with a plastic bag at the point of sale. It also would require that paper bags contain no old-growth fiber, contain a minimum of 40 percent recycled content and be recyclable. Catherine Borgia, D-Ossining, MaryJane Shimsky, D-Hastings, and Peter Harckham, D-North Salem, are co-sponsors of the bill. “The real goal of the legislation is to get people to bring reusable bags,” Parker said. She compared the legislation with other measures aimed at changing behavior, such as seat belt laws. “It does help to reinforce and expedite the public’s change of habit.” A similar ban took effect in the city of Rye in May 2012. Parker, at the time, was a member of the Rye City Council, though she did not introduce the bill. Currently, plastic bags are banned in the city of Rye and the villages of Mamaroneck, Larchmont and Hastings-onHudson, but the Hastings-on-Hudson ban has been challenged in court. Parker said she sees the ban in Rye as a success. “Consumers, when they shop in our community, they get it. They understand the environmental effect,” Parker said. She noted that Rye still has a grocery store, and another on the way, and thus feels that there hasn’t been a negative effect on business. At the supermarket, however, plastic bags are often preferred by customers. “The plastic versus paper bag debate has
Health, page 6
Plastic bags, page 6
SPECIAL REPORT • 19
SUGARY KARMA
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NEWSMAKERS • 28 Andie Regan and Emily Lapine are classmates and co-founders of Karma Cookies.
Small businesses stay off state health exchange BY JOHN GOLDEN jgolden@westfairinc.com The New York State of Health insurance exchange this month began a three-month open enrollment period for its second year of operation after signing up nearly 1 million individuals for health care coverage in the new state marketplace in 2014. Small businesses in Westchester County and across the state, though, did not rush to purchase group plans for their employees on the state’s
BY LEIF SKODNICK lskodnick@westfairinc.com