Here's the latest in an issue we've been following, just because if the plastic bag ban hasn't reached your jurisdiction yet, it certainly will (it has been adopted across Hawaii's counties except for the City and County of Honolulu, for example).So it's worthwhile to keep up with developments.
In Schmeer v. County of Los Angeles, No. B240592 (Feb. 22, 2013), the California Court of Appeal concluded that L.A. County's ban in unincorporated parts of the county on plastic bags in retail stores (and a 10 cent charge for paper bags) was not a "tax" that needed to be approved by the voters.
The ordinance states that the money received for recyclable paper bags must be retained by the store and used only for (1) the costs of compliance with the ordinance; (2) the actual costs of providing recyclable paper bags; or (3) the costs of educational materials or other costs of promoting the use of reusable bags.
Slip op. at 4. Several people who had to pay the paper bag fee challenged it as a tax under article XIII of the Califonria Constitution, which requires any new general or special taxes imposed by local governments to be approved by the voters. The court of appeal undertook a long analysis of what qualifies as a "tax," but ultimately concluded that the bag ban/fee was not one because customers pay the fee to the store and not the county. Slip op. at 23. A "tax" after all, is something we pay to the government, usually designed to raise revenue for the government. Id. at 28.
Here's the tie-in to the photo above. So you will follow this issue (like we said, the ban is coming your way, trust us), we are offering for a limited time to our readers our firm's reuseable, 100%-from-recycled-materials-big-enough-to-carry-two-bags-of-groceries EnviroBag (from another angle here). These blue bags are not your typical cheap recycle bags, but are made of a sturdy woven fiber and have a built-in floor piece. They are quite strong and will hold a ton of stuff.
To get yours, simply send us an email with your address, and we'll post one to you forthwith. So we're not giving these away for the indefinite future, this offer closes at 11:59 p.m. Hawaii time on Thursday, February 28, 2013.
Admin note: Our firm's servers have very aggressive spam filters, so if you do not get an email response from me ("Bag on they way" or similar) within a reasonable amount of time after your request, please ping me again. Sometimes, valid messages get caught up and I only clear my junk mail folder occasionally. Don't want to miss anyone.
Schmeer v. County of Los Angeles, No. B240592 (Cal. App. Feb. 22, 2013)
