{"id":5094,"date":"2011-07-27T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T15:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/letter-to-the-editor-long-beach-plastic-bag-ban-ordinance-is-bad-business-policy-violates-state-constitution\/"},"modified":"2011-07-27T15:19:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T15:19:00","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-long-beach-plastic-bag-ban-ordinance-is-bad-business-policy-violates-state-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/letter-to-the-editor-long-beach-plastic-bag-ban-ordinance-is-bad-business-policy-violates-state-constitution","title":{"rendered":"LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Long Beach Plastic Bag Ban Ordinance is Bad Business Policy, Violates State Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\"><strong>2:01pm | <\/strong>&nbsp;<em>Editor&#8217;s note: The following is a letter to the editor submitted by Eastside Long Beach resident Jason Aula, political director for the Long Beach Young Republicans.<\/em><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\"><br \/><span><strong>Dear Editor,<\/strong><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\"><br \/><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\">California\u2019s Green jihad has led to bad business decisions all over L.A. County, including Long Beach. Since before the recession California manufacturing has been on a decline. Los Angeles, which is still the nation\u2019s largest industrial area, has lost a remarkable one-fifth of its manufacturing employment since 2005. California\u2019s green theology has lead to multiple illogical economic and political decisions. The plastic bag ban laws in L.A. County and Long Beach are textbook examples!<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\"><br \/><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\">In November of 2010, California voters passed <a href=\"http:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/wiki\/index.php\/Text_of_Proposition_26,_the_Supermajority_Vote_to_Pass_New_Taxes_and_Fees_Act_%28California%29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Proposition 26, which requires local government to achieve a supermajority vote to pass new taxes and fees<\/a> such as the fee associated with the plastic bag ban in Long Beach. Even though the city receives no money from this fee, the city government is still controlling how bag revenue is used. Requirements for how revenue is used means retailers are acting as an agent of the government, which under Proposition 26 would qualify as a fee. Proposition 26 is supposed to stop politicians from using a loophole to raise even more taxes by disguising them as fees.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\"><br \/><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\">What this means is that every part of the plastic bag ban, except for the fee, is legal until the city of Long Beach can put the issue to a citywide vote. This vote would need to achieve <a href=\"http:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/wiki\/index.php\/California_Proposition_26,_Supermajority_Vote_to_Pass_New_Taxes_and_Fees_%282010%29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a two-thirds supermajority to make this 10-cent paper bag surcharge legal<\/a>.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\"><br \/>Lets save the environment by banning plastic bags the way San Francisco has without a fee, a fee that will drive shoppers away from Long Beach.&nbsp;<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\"><br \/><meta charset=\"utf-8\">Why hasn&#8217;t anyone taken this up in the local Long Beach courts?<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\"><br \/><\/span><br \/><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\">Jason Aula<\/span><\/strong><br \/><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\">Eastside Long Beach<\/span><\/strong><br \/><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';\">Long Beach Young Republicans Political Director<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California\u2019s Green jihad has led to bad business decisions all over L.A. County, including Long Beach. Since before the recession California manufacturing has been on a decline. Los Angeles, which is still the nation\u2019s largest industrial area, has lost a remarkable one-fifth of its manufacturing employment since 2005. California\u2019s green theology has lead to multiple illogical economic and political decisions. The plastic bag ban laws in L.A. County and Long Beach are textbook examples!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5094"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5094"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}