We have exhaustively covered the annual attempt by the enviro-whack community to assault the freedom grocery store owners and their customers (us!) to use plastic bags to take home our groceries.  This notion is so extreme and impactful on people that it has never become law.  That said, this year the legislation (contained in AB 1998) got further than it has in the past. 

To be honest, that has been due to the greed of the California Grocers Association and its members.  Under the current legislation that has been passed in the Assembly, but not the Senate, in addition to banning plastic grocery bags, there would also be a state-imposed free of at least five cents a bag (if you did the math, this turns into the collection of hundreds of millions of dollars annually) — but that money doesn’t go into some enviro-whack state program, it goes right into the pocket of grocery store owners (predominantly massive outfits such as Safeway Foods).  It a very bad combination of environment extremists teaming up with business owners that would use government to help pad their pockets.  After all, any grocery store, on their own, could simply stop selling plastic bags and only use paper ones — and they could charge the shopper whatever price they want for it.

So what is the current status of AB 1998?  That’s a simple answer – kind of.  AB 1998 had (barely) passed out of the Assembly back on June 1.  In the State Senate, the bill was passed by a policy committee (Environmental Quality) on a party-line vote, but it was not passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee.  That committee, instead, voted to refer the bill to the Senate Rules Committee where it remains "parked" until it is moved from there.  They did so, however, on the last day that a bill could be approved by Appropriations. 

The key here, which should give readers some comfort, is that in order for AB 1998 to pass out of the Senate, because of the missed deadline (presumably missed because it lacked Dem votes), it will now take a 2/3rds vote of the full State Senate.  I am pleased to report that this means that Republicans vote would be needed to pass this terrible legislation.  And I am not aware of a single GOPer who things banning plastic grocery bags and passing a new bag tax is a good idea (in a bad economy or a good one).

So why are there still TV ads being run in Sacramento again this bill?

That is because in the State Legislature, there are no rules.  Or at least no rules that are considered beyond violation or circumvention.  Right now there is immense bickering and infighting taking place between the coalition of greenies and grocers supporting this bill.

But the only way this bill sees the light of day is through the very unsavory process which insiders call ‘gut and amend’ — which is slang for taking a bill that has already passed in one chamber, and completely deleting its contents, and replacing it with a totally new bill.  Doing this, of course, makes a mockery of the rules of the legislature.  It eliminates policy review, fiscal review — and, of course, it eliminates the opportunity for meaningful public input on the new legislation.  As we are in the final days of legislative session, such a bill would have to literally be gutted and amended and passed by both legislative chambers in hours.

Governor Schwarzenegger has made some noises about possibly signing a plastic grocery bag ban (the creaking sound you hear is Milt and Rose Friedman trying to roll over in their caskets) — we hope that the Governor will agree that a bill that gets to his desk that circumvents the legislative process, and that does not allow for full public review and input, is not one worth signing — should the Democrats put it on his desk.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.