How can you tell we are in an election year? Look at the various pieces of legislation where the once foe is now a friend, but after Nov. 6th, will probably become a foe again.
There is no clearer example of election year hypocrisy than SB 270, which seeks to ban plastic grocery bags and impose a minimum 10-cent tax on all paper bags, with no price cap on what store owners could charge.
What came across – at first glance – as an effort to “improve our environment” has morphed into an attack on both recyclable plastic and paper bags and to further complicate things, the new proposed bags under SB 270 can’t be recycled curbside.
Under SB 270 the current plastic bags would be replaced with a much larger and thicker plastic bag and all the revenue generated by all the 10-cent taxes on paper bags would be kept by the grocery store owners and big box retailers including Ralphs, Vons, Target and Walmart. This yearly revenue is expected to generate nearly a billion dollars.
I am sure many of our Democrats friends are scratching their heads wondering:
Since when did replacing one plastic bag with a much larger plastic bag become environmentalism? Especially when the new plastic bag that can’t be recycled in our blue recycling bins.
Does a vote for SB 270 mean crossing the Walmart picket line?”
Since when did the California Democrat Party begin developing legislation to help generate hundreds of millions of dollars to non-union organizations like Walmart and Target? Does this mean the “Making Change At Walmart” campaign is on hold?
Why would Democrats allow for 100% of the money generated from the tax to go into the wallets of the owners, CEOs and stockholders of these billion dollar companies and not a single dime gets used for global warming research, litter removal, after school education programs, health care or any of their other pet causes. Heck the money doesn’t even go into the state general fund?
How does implementing a tax in which all the profits go directly to the grocery store owners’ help save the environment?
The answer to all those questions is simple: Welcome to the 2014 Election Season.