Santa Clara County supervisors ban plastic bags

[alp227]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

In a sign of California's cultural creep away from reliance on the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag, Santa Clara County supervisors passed a sweeping ban Tuesday without a single naysayer from the public.

Earlier hearings on the county's two-year effort toward banning plastic carry-out bags drew heated opposition from chambers of commerce, merchants and even chemical and oil producers.

But Tuesday's vote had just one opponent, the newest board member and lone Republican, Mike Wasserman, who spoke out for affected wineries and golf courses in his South County district. Wasserman said plastic bags don't really contribute all that much to pollution.

"I question an ordinance that would apply to only a handful of businesses, add unnecessary regulation at unknown costs, and at the end of the day only address 1 percent of the trash problem," Wasserman said in an interview.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/rss/ci_17933322

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Oh, the top comment in the comments section is from none other than...Steve Wozniak!

[IamK]

1. you would think they may have other issues to talk about...

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/03/02/santa-clara-county-faces-sobering-budget-news/


Santa Clara County Faces $80 Million Budget Deficit

County Executive Jeff Smith said the San Jose Redevelopment Agency owes the county three years of back payments totaling almost $63 million.
“In addition, you’ll notice that we also have some deficits in projection for property taxes and a significant problem in the increase of expenditures that are over-budgeted for this year,” Smith said.


In total, the county is facing a revenue shortfall of almost $80 million, meaning they could have trouble paying both bills and employees.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Mike Wasserman, who is a Certified Public Accountant, said the numbers have put them in a tough spot.

“The situation is bleak. We don’t have the cash flow. We had a time a few months ago where we barely met payroll,” said Wasserman. “We’ve got that upcoming concern now. We’ve got one time funds that aren’t coming this time around like they did a year ago. We don’t know what the state’s going to do. That’s out of our control. And the federal funding that we got a year ago is not coming anymore.”

[Spinny Liberal]

2. Exactly

Bigger fish to fry than plastic grocery bags.

[IamK]

3. All the county employees will be getting a paper bag to pack their crap up in

when they get canned this summer....

[Spinny Liberal]

4. Actually

they're sticking to boxes, provided they're recyclable. ;-)

[kestrel91316]

5. Yeah. And we all know how it's completely impossible for legislators to

address more than a single issue or law in their entire term.

Oh noes!!!!!! Now their hands are tied until 2012!!!!! ZOMG!1!!11!!!!