There’s a lot Salinas City Councilwoman Kimbley Craig and challenger Eric Petersen agree on: They want money to spend beefing up certain city functions, like short-staffed fire and police departments, and nicer parks.
What they disagree on is how to pay for those things – and how gentle to be on the big-box stores that generate significant sales tax revenue.
City Council considered a draft ordinance on Aug. 19 that would ban single-use plastic bags and require shoppers to pay a dime for paper bags; it’s a modified version of a new county ordinance, and similar to plastic bag bans in other cities including Monterey, which charges a quarter. Craig objected to an earlier version of the ban, which would’ve charged a quarter, but indicated she might support the current draft.
Craig, who was first elected in 2010 with the support of business groups, is running against a staunch environmentalist in November. Petersen ran twice for Congress as a Green Party candidate against Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. He lost in both primaries.
Petersen supports the bag ban. “My opponent is pretty much the least environmental member of the City Council,” he says. His opponent was the lone dissenting vote when City Council approved a ban on styrofoam takeout containers in 2011. At the council meeting last week, she displayed styro take-out containers, recently collected from local groups, to show how ineffective such bans can be.
Craig, first elected in 2010, says she’s come around to eco-issues, but the economic impact of retail-heavy District 5 – which includes Northridge and Westridge malls – can’t be ignored.
“When you have California Restaurant Association weighing in, you have to listen,” she says. “It doesn’t mean you are beholden to them, but [sales tax revenue means] we can create parks and maintain our roads.”
Sales tax generates about $25 million a year, the largest moneymaker for the city.