New York state's ban on plastic bags takes effect in a few weeks, but Albany County's fee on paper bags has been delayed. In November, the legislature approved charging a five-cent fee for every paper bag used at grocery stores throughout the county.

District 34 Legislator Joanne Cunningham, who wrote the ordinance, says the fee is designed to encourage people to change their behavior and use their own reusable bags instead.

"What we're not trying to do is ban plastic and create a different kind of environmental problem with the proliferation of paper bags," Cunningham said Thursday.

Originally, legislators hoped the paper bag fee would coincide with the state's ban on plastic bags, which takes effect March 1.

Cunningham says the county recently learned state officials had a problem with some of the wording in the ordinance, which means its implementation will be delayed a few months.

"It's not catastrophic things, it sounds like it's very minor technical changes," Cunningham said. "It shouldn't require us to start all over with public hearings and that sort of thing, so we should be able to move quickly."

Cunningham says 60 percent of the money raised from the fee will help poorer communities and elderly communities afford reusable bags. The rest will be devoted to environmental cleanup.