Plastic Bag Ban–with Massive Tax Increase–Sits on Brown’s Desk

By Jon Fleischman

On January 9, at a press conference in the State Capitol introducing his FY 2014-15 budget, Governor Jerry Brown said, “There will be no new taxes for the foreseeable future.”

Could it be that we have reached the unforeseen future with the delivery by the California legislature of Senate Bill 270, the “plastic bag ban,” on his desk? 

Taken on its face, this legislation is a statewide ban on the use of plastic grocery bags. A proverbial softball across home plate for a governor who last year scored an 89% on the California League of Conservation Voters California Environmental Scorecard. Brown could hold a Schwarzenegger-esque media event on a floating barge in Santa Monica Bay, declaring it a plastic bag-free zone.

But of course SB 270 is hardly a simple ban on plastic grocery bags. Given the lopsided numeric advantage that Democrats have in the California legislature, one assumes that such a simple ban could have been passed.  But instead, written in the legislation by its author, Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), is a significant de facto tax increase on California consumers–a regressive tax increase, at that.

To read the rest of the article on Breitbart News: HERE

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