Today, I’ve been working on the highway pages, and this means going through what the state legislature is doing. For all people harp on Obama and the Governator, they should actually go through and read what the legislature does! Go on. Here’s the list of assembly bills and state senate bills. These folks have introduced over 1,000 bills in the last two months in the assembly, and over 500 in the same period in the state senate. You know what costs money? All this useless legislation and all the legislative distractions. At least the health care debate kept folks from doing other useless stuff we don’t hear about!
Look through the lists I linked. Then go look at the bills and learn what folks are doing. It’s really easy to do so. Jot down the numbers of the items of interest (these are the AB or SB numbers, or for resolutions, the ACR or SCR numbers). Then go to this page, and simply enter the bill number. For example, supposed you entered SB 1453, which would take you to this page. Just click on the latest HTML for the bill, and you can see how they want to spend money on digital license plates. Or look at SB 1299, where they want to have a pilot project with a Vehicle Miles Travelled Tax. How about this: AB 2138:
This bill would enact the Plastic Ocean Pollution Reduction, Recycling, and Composting Act and would prohibit a food provider, after an unspecified date, but not after July 1, 2013, from distributing a disposable food service packaging or a single-use carryout bag, as defined, unless the packaging or bag meet the criteria for either compostable packaging or recyclable packaging. The bill would prohibit a food provider, on and after July 1, 2013, from distributing a disposable food service packaging or a single-use carryout bag to a consumer, unless the department determines the packaging or bag meet a specified composting or recycling rate. The department would be required to adopt regulations to implement these requirements.
This bill would provide for the imposition of a civil penalty upon a person violating these requirements and would require the penalties to be deposited into the Ocean Pollution Reduction Account, which the bill would create in the Integrated Waste Management Fund in the State Treasury. The bill would authorize the department to expend the moneys deposited in the account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to provide public education and assist local governmental agencies in efforts to reduce plastic waste and marine debris, and for the board’s costs of implementing the act.
This isn’t a problem of party. This is a problem of legislators spending too much time in Sacramento (or Washington).
