March 23, 2012
At the hearing on the Writ of Mandate this morning, Hon. Judge James Chalfant adopted his tentative decision to deny Hilex Poly's Writ - thereby upholding LA County's plastic bag ordinance. The Court found that the 10-cent charge on paper bags was not a tax under the California Constitution because the retailers keep all of the money collected pursuant to the ordinance, and even if the paper bag charge was a tax it would fall within the first exemption to Prop 26.
An appeal is expected, but this is a great first test case for Prop 26 and is encouraging for California cities moving forward with second generation plastic bag ordinances.
Preserved from the site's blog as published.