Freshman State Senator Ricardo Lara and I don’t see eye to eye on much. Lara has praised the “comprehensive immigration reform” package being considered in Congress — I think it is a public policy disaster. Lara fights for the recognition of gay marriage — I think that the institution of marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman. Lara wants to speed along the implementation of Obamacare — I want to see it repealed. Lara is a Democrat — and I am a Republican. Kindred souls? Probably not.
That having been said, believe it or not the Senator and I do not disagree on everything. This week Lara published an OpEd in the Long Beach Press Telegram, Plastic Bag Ban Would Hurt California Workers. In the piece, Lara says:
Senator Ricardo Lara (D) is strongly opposed to a statewide ban on plastic grocery bags.
I would like to have a responsible and smart conversation that balances the human, economic and environmental concerns surrounding plastic bags. We all care about the environment and want to reduce litter, but at a time when California is still recovering from a recession, we need to pursue policies that protect the environment and jobs.
Last week I had the opportunity to meet with hardworking people in my district who would be most affected by a plastic bag ban being debated in the state Legislature. The employees of Crown Poly, Inc., a plastic bag manufacturing facility in Huntington Park, took me on a tour of the facility where they work. The time spent with them put things in perspective.
The issue matters to the thousands of Californians and their families who rely on the plastic bag industry for their livelihoods. Before we proceed with banning an entire industry, we should understand the full impact and cost of our actions on our local economy and the hardworking people and families that will be displaced. This facility and these workers need to have a voice in a debate that has essentially ignored them.
You can read the entire column online here, but the punchline is that it ends, “A statewide plastic bag ban in is the wrong approach at a time when California is still on the mend.”
Senator Lara’s position makes sense, and he is a voice of reason on this issue in a legislature that too often is held captive by the ideological left, which pursues extreme legislation with vigor without nary a concern about the negative economic impacts of its passage. And I am told that he is not the only Democrat who believes that passing a statewide ban on plastic grocery bags is an ill-timed exercise.
This is relevant because yesterday in the Senate Appropriations committee, by a one vote margin, SB 405 by Senator Alex Padilla was removed from the Suspense File and passed out of committee. Apparently it will come to the full Senate next week for a vote. This measure by Padilla is not just a complete ban on plastic bags from grocery stores and pharmacies, but it would slap a ten cent “bag tax” on paper bags as well. The goal of this nanny-statist legislation is to force all Californians to put their groceries into reusable plastic bags.
SB 405 would impose a ban and bag tax on every community in the state when not every city wants to impose such a ban. In South Orange County, which is where I live, the city of San Clemente recently reviewed the issue and after careful consideration voted against such a ban. This bill would preempt such local decision making. No thanks.
in addition to banning plastic grocery bags, SB 405 would slap a ten cent tax on paper grocery bags, too.
Lara makes the argument that a statewide bag ban is bad for our moribund economy, which is true. In a column that I wrote earlier this year on Pedilla’s bill, I said:
The left is making the same, stale arguments against plastic bags — arguing that they are bad for the environment (inconveniently not borne out by the facts). But of course the plastic bags that you and I use in the store (you know, the ones that let you juggle eight bags with ten fingers and still manage to get the trunk open) aren’t the culprits. After all, our bags get used and then we either save them for use around the house, doggie poo clean up, or we throw them away. Of course there are some that litter with their plastic bags, but what fun would it be for the left to target only those who litter (whom they no doubt categorize as ‘victims of society’)?
Why do we have plastic bags in the first place? The answer is straightforward — consumer demand. People enjoy the convenience of using a plastic bag. The factors are many – but low cost and ease of use are right up there on the list. Here in America, a country based on the principles of liberty and freedom, it seems that being able to responsibly use the means of your choosing to transport your groceries should be safeguarded. Is it too much for ask those in our government to protect our way of life, rather than seeking to manipulate it, and lessen it, because they want to impose their personal values onto the rest of us?
So whether you think a bag ban is bad for the economy, or whether you oppose a new tax on paper bags, or whether you believe in consumer choice and individual responsibility — there are reasons for everyone to oppose Padilla’s bad bag ban bill. I haven’t spoken to a Republican yet who thinks this is a good idea, and I am heartened that Democrats like Senator Lara are dead-set opposed to it.
Who said bipartisanship is dead in Sacramento?