Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich wrote a letter to Governor Jerry Brown on Friday criticizing recent efforts to ban plastic bags in California.
The proposed ban means a $0.10 fee would be imposed on all paper bags used at grocery stores, which would affect the pocketbooks of California’s “economically distressed” communities, according to a news release by Antonovich’s office.
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“The $0.10 per bag fee will force lower income residents in impoverished communities around the state to pay for paper bags, with little indication of how the money will be spent– or if it will just help line the pockets of major grocery stores,” Antonovich wrote in the letter.
He also stated the legislation would do little to reduce the environmental impact of bags, instead serving “special interests” at grocery stores.
“Dictating to our residents what bag they can and cannot use, and how much to be charged per bag is not good government,” he wrote. “It is draconian law-making, and big brother at its worst.”
Antonovich concluded the letter by requesting Brown and his staff “consider the unnecessary merit” of the legislation and ultimately veto it.
State legislation to ban plastic bags has failed in previous legislative sessions.
The proposal in question recently passed the State Assembly after a labor union “negotiated an undisclosed deal with a major grocery retailer on how the funds from the paper bag tax will be utilized,” according to the news release.
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