He Wants to Pin a Tax on Disposable Diapers
Constituents have called to say they think it stinks, but state Sen. Don Perata believes that when California babies grow up, they'll thank their forebears for taxing disposable diapers to keep them out of landfills.
The Oakland Democrat wants to tax disposable diapers at a quarter-cent each, arguing that, with landfills already filling up, "elected officials, policymakers, health professionals, waste haulers, recycling experts and parents agree: Disposable diapers just don't belong in our state's landfills, for both environmental and public health reasons."
A dozen years ago, the Federal Trade Commission ordered an Orange County company to stop advertising that its diapers would decompose in landfills.
Studies have shown varying rates of diaper decomposition in landfills, where junk is packed so densely that "biodegradable" may be a process that takes decades or even centuries.
Human lifespans tend to max out around 100 years; humans' diapers can linger in landfills about 500 years -- and more than 20 billion of them are sent to the nation's landfills every year.
Perata's bill, which would probably hasten potty training, would dedicate the tax money to pay for diaper-recycling programs.
Ink Is Red -- and Maybe Some Faces
The ink is red, but his politics aren't: Irvine's longtime Republican state Sen. Ross Johnson has been penning his "Red Ink Diaries" for Capitol insiders, sending zingers in the direction of Gov. Gray Davis.
His latest takes Davis to task for accumulating a staff of nearly 200, including more than 100 personal aides working in various state departments with salaries totaling $7.7 million.
Davis' press secretary, Steve Maviglio, sent out his anti-ballistic-missile announcement to intercept Johnson's.
The Capitol Morning Report points out the salaries of Johnson's staff of 11, among them special assistant and longtime Johnson employee Susan Swatt, who earns $133,416 a year -- $2,000 more than the governor's chief of staff -- and Johnson's own chief of staff, former Orange County assemblyman Dennis Brown, who makes $100,752.
Been Down This Street Before
He was caught cruising in a state-leased SUV, and now he may be cruising for a fall.
Assemblyman Steve Samuelian, a Clovis Republican, is feeling the heat from conservatives to resign after Fresno police caught him cruising in late January on the same street where he was arrested in 1998 for intending to solicit sex from a prostitute.
