Voters in Los Angeles casting their ballots on election day. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)Bottled water, immigration, condoms, hospital fees, plastic bags, statehood, alimony – those are just a smattering of the issues on, or trying to get on, California’s 2016 statewide ballot. There are 36 proposed initiatives that are either awaiting review in the Attorney General’s Office or are being shopped around California’s 58 counties for signatures.
A landfill strewn with plastic bags. (Photo: Picsfive, Shutterstock)With California’s law banning plastic bags on hold, the plastic bag industry and its allies already are pouring money into California in hopes of overturning the law in a referendum two years down the road. Referendum proponents have until Dec. 29 to collect enough signatures to put the referendum before voters in November 2016.
Plastic bags and other debris at a landfill await the bulldozer. (Photo: Huguette Roe)OPINION: You might already have noticed petition gatherers buzzing around Target and other stores, asking for your signature to undo the historic statewide plastic bag ban signed into law just weeks ago by California Gov. Jerry Brown. I urge you not to sign them. Out-of-state interlopers are pouring millions of dollars into the effort to undo what the Governor and Legislature have just accomplished to reduce the plastic bags littering our neighborhoods.
Plastic bags and other debris at a landfill await the bulldozer. (Photo: Huguette Roe)The ink was barely dry on Gov. Brown’s signature to ban single-use plastic bags when foes of his decision filed paperwork with the state attorney general’s office for a referendum in 2016 to overturn the new law. The request for an official title and summary from the attorney general was submitted Tuesday.