In the not so distant future, shoppers may have to cough up an extra nickel for a disposable bag at the grocery store, and that's a good thing, said Del. Al Carr (D-Montgomery County).

Carr, the lead sponsor of a disposable-bag fee bill in the House of Delegates, took part in a panel discussion on Thursday to raise public awareness on the matter. The event was organized by TrashFree Maryland, a coalition of environmental organizations, and was held in the Lowe House Office Building.

The Montgomery County delegate was joined by Mayor Margo Bailey of Chestertown and Charles Allen, chief of staff for D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who was the lead sponsor of the district's successful attempt to place a fee on disposable bags last year.

Carr stressed the importance of D.C.'s landmark legislation, and said he hoped Maryland could follow in the footsteps of the nation's capital.

"The bill is being introduced today, and we've had a great model to follow in D.C.," Carr said.

Though the same bill failed to move in the General Assembly over the past two years, Carr sounded optimistic about the legislation's chances this year.

"We've had a multi-year strategy on this," he said. "We think our chances are very good this year (to get it passed)."

The legislation, officially known as the Clean the Streams and Beautify the Bay Act of 2011, would charge customers 5 cents for each non-reusable bag. According to a release put out by TrashFree Maryland, a majority of the fee would go to the Chesapeake Bay Trust, which supports bay-restoration efforts. The remainder of the money would go to administrative costs, providing free reusable bags for low-income and elderly residents, and back to the businesses providing the bags.

While some paint this fee as yet another tax that will hurt businesses, Allen said that couldn't be further from the truth.

"This works for business," he said. "There's no such thing as a free bag, and the cost normally gets passed on to the consumer."

But with a bag fee, Allen said usage of one-time bags will be drastically minimized, and businesses will get back a portion of the 5 cents to 8 cents that it costs them to provide each disposable bag.

"None of them (businesses) say sales are down, or that they've had to lay off workers," Allen said.

Additionally, supporters said the D.C. bill furthers the case for a disposable-bag fee. Since passage of the disposable bag fee, the district has seen an 86 percent decline in the number of single-use bags given out, according to a press release put out by TrashFree Maryland.

Before the bill's passage in D.C., 22.5 million disposable bags were given out each month, but in January, since implementation of the bill, only 3 million bags were used, according to the release.

While the fate of the bill is still undetermined, it's gaining support in both the House and Senate. The bill has 34 co-sponsors in the House, and nine co-sponsors in the Senate, with Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County) leading the Senate effort.

Even if the bill fails to move this year at the state level, Thursday's forum also was a showcase of what can be done on a local level. 

Chestertown Mayor Margo Bailey is pushing for her locality to place an outright ban on plastic bags. While she initially wanted to place a fee on the bags in her town, state authorities said localities didn't have the power to do that, so she had to settle for the next best thing.

"I've become a mad snarling dog about plastic bags," Bailey said. "It's costing us a lot of money (to clean them up), and a lot of it's just not thinking about it, it's just a habit."

The eastern shore mayor plans to have the first reading of the city ordinance in 10 days, and she claims to have the entirety of the city council behind her.

"It's going to be a reality in Chestertown," Bailey said.

Although such steps on a local level are promising for supporters of a bag fee, a state-wide law would widen the reach and impact. But, in such an anti-tax climate where less government seems to be the prevailing mantra, it's unclear how steep the climb from bill to law will be.

Recently, Virginia lawmakers shot down attempts at similar legislation in Richmond. One of the biggest hurdles, Allen said, is making sure people understand the difference between a tax and a fee in the simplest of terms. 

"It's not a tax if you have a choice," said Allen.