The Dec. 9th article entitled
”
Police battle to control crime
”
contains a confusing set of factoids. To recapitulate: Mayor Al
Pinheiro and deputy executive director of Housing Programs Candy
Capogrossi agree that historically, Gilroy has had a
disproportionately large number of convicted criminals living here
because Gilroy is a cheaper place to live than nearby cities. That
much I understand.
The Dec. 9th article entitled “Police battle to control crime” contains a confusing set of factoids. To recapitulate: Mayor Al Pinheiro and deputy executive director of Housing Programs Candy Capogrossi agree that historically, Gilroy has had a disproportionately large number of convicted criminals living here because Gilroy is a cheaper place to live than nearby cities. That much I understand.
But the article goes on to state that Gilroy did not receive $2.8 billion in state affordable housing subsidies because we have a growth limit and no RDA. Our Housing and Community Development Coordinator is working on a new plan so we can get our subsidies. This confuses me. We have more criminals because we have cheaper housing. So we want even cheaper housing? Why? So we can attract more criminals?
——-
The county’s proposal to charge 25 cents per grocery bag also confuses me. Paper and plastic bags are both recyclable. Paper bags compost readily; plastic bags disintegrate within a year if left in the sun and weather. Many people and businesses already reduce, reuse, or recycle their bags. My friend Debbie uses canvas bags. I request paper bags and I reuse them systematically, consistently, compulsively, four times or more, until they disintegrate. Then I recycle them.
Costco does not give out grocery bags; it lets customers use the cardboard boxes in which goods are delivered to the store to ferry their purchases home. Nob Hill reimburses the customer five cents for each bag she brings in to reuse. I do not understand how anyone could not know that both paper and plastic bags are recyclable. South Valley Disposal and Recycling sends out a flier every year detailing all the things that can be recycled. Plastic grocery bags are printed with a plea to recycle this bag.
Since Councilman Dion Bracco admits that prior to a council meeting on the subject on July 2007, he did not know garbage bags could be recycled, perhaps he should make some more concrete suggestions about how the city can educate our citizens. If they won’t or can’t read the information from SVDR or the information printed on the bag itself, they probably won’t or can’t read info from the city. Should we try public meetings? Loud speakers on trucks? Rap songs? The proposed ordinance will have no effect on the people who use canvas bags. It will be a minimal annoyance to people who reuse their paper bags. It will be a major hassle to retailers who will have to count bags, charge their customers, keep track of funds collected, and pay the tax.
It will be a major expense to the poor: the people who actually need the bags to hold their groceries because they walk home. Unfortunately, these same poor do not recycle and tend to litter. (I have never understood litterbugs who throw garbage, including plastic bags, on the ground, to blow around and look ugly and get caught in car undercarriages and spook horses and clog creeks.) I am also not clear on who would be getting the money from the proposed 25-cent-per-bag fee that the county commission is proposing. The county?
I thought two-thirds of voters had to approve new taxes? Or is this one of those cases where a tax does not count as a tax because it is a fee? And does the county not have anything better to do with their time and energy than bilk consumers out of 25 cents per shopping bag?
Come, let us reason together. We the people tax ourselves to provide for the common good. At the federal level, we muster armies to defend us. At the local level, we build roads and sewage treatment plants. One of the complaints against King George in the Declaration of Independence is: “He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”
Substitute the county Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission and the Agricultural and Environmental Management Department for offices, and Zachary DeVine for officer. Taxes should not be used as a weapon to harass the residents into socially acceptable behavior. That is an abuse of the power to tax.
