We just wish they would solve their laundry list of pressing problems in Hollister first.
With a fiscal crisis on their hands and the need for a major economic boost here, the Hollister City Council has turned its attention to an environmental matter that acts as nothing more than an illusion of activity as real problems remain unsolved.
Hollister officials have begun talks about getting involved in a program to reduce plastic bag use in the city. They intend to work with the county's Integrated Waste Department on a campaign of some kind, but officials say they have no intention of adding penalties or banning the bags outright as some other larger cities have done.
This matter should be left up to Integrated Waste officials - and penalties or a ban should stay out of the discussion - because Hollister council members have a laundry list of more important issues to address.
Even with the Measure T sales-tax injection, which was touted as the savior of Hollister's finances, the general fund budget remains riddled with a structural deficit while the reserve fund will be headed toward a zero balance in the next couple of years. Nobody has even started seriously discussing Measure T's expiration and the vast unlikelihood that Hollister citizens will be willing to extend the tax or make it permanent.
Needless to say, council members have an array of challenging problems on their plate. Jumping on the plastic bag bandwagon doesn't solve any of them and merely creates a smoke screen. There are already efforts in place to spread awareness about plastic bags and offer incentives, such as tote bags, to avoid their over use. Why should council members waste their time on a matter they have no business trying to solve?
Hollister's council members, after all, aren't going to figure out the world's problems when they can't solve their own.
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