Before signing political petitions, do your homework

Statewide political battles are fought in many places, even in front of the Paso Robles Wal-Mart.

I recently saw a man there urging voters to sign referendum petitions against a newly enacted state law. It was a law to prohibit stores from giving customers their purchases in free plastic bags.

A Sacramento Bee editorial published in last Saturday’s Tribune said a group of plastic-bag manufacturers is spending millions of dollars to bring about a referendum election on that law. In a referendum election the state’s voters have the final say on approving or rejecting a law.

The man near Wal-Mart’s door was one of the many solicitors around the state getting signatures for that referendum. If they get 505,000 by Dec. 29, the statewide bag ban will be on the November ballot in 2016. In the meantime the law will be in limbo.

The editorial indicated that solicitors like the man at Wal-Mart are paid $1.50 per signature. One thing that I noticed about him was his hand-lettered sign. It said “Repeal Shopping Bag Tax” or “End Shopping Bag Tax.” I can’t remember the exact words, but they included “Bag Tax.”

But there is no bag tax. What we do have is a newly passed state law requiring us to use reusable shopping bags statewide. We have to buy the bags, but the state doesn’t get the money.

If the solicitors fail to get 505,000 signatures, the new bag law will take effect next summer. But our county and 130 other California jurisdictions have already adopted similar plastic-bag bans.

Single-use plastic bags cause litter and environmental damage. This county’s Integrated Waste Management Authority banned them in 2012.

Stores may also sell paper bags to shoppers for 10 cents each, but I don’t see many people buying them. I see more people just taking their purchases to their cars loose in shopping carts.

The man soliciting signatures outside Wal-Mart asked people if they were voters. If they said, “Yes,” he sought to get their signatures. His sign about “repealing” or “ending” a tax probably appealed to some people, but not everybody.

As one man signed up, the woman with him just stood back and watched. As they walked away, he appeared to ask her why she didn’t sign. She just kept walking. She looked uncomfortable, as though she disapproved of what he’d just done but she didn’t want an argument.

So what should we do when a solicitor with a plausible story asks us to sign his or her petition? Remember it’s an important decision. You could say, “Not now, I have to think it over,” and do just that.

Look it up on the Internet. Take your time.

This story was originally published December 18, 2014 at 12:09 PM with the headline "Before signing political petitions, do your homework."