(Ed.'s Note: Now that the Texas Attorney General has decided that the plastic bag ban imposed on Brownsville residents during the term of former mayor Pat Ahumada, it has became abundantly clear that the legal advice they're getting from legal counsel Mark Sossi that the city commission was within its legal rights to impose a fee was basically flawed.
Last week the TAG told the city in no uncertain terms that charging a fee for the bags constituted a double tax for waste management. The city's convoluted argument that was doing ti for environmental reasons didn't pass the AG's smell test and now they are looking for a way to step away from the fee.
As you can see from the photos above sent to us by one of our seven readers, the environmental justifications didn't really solve the litter problem, did it? We can always count on a 10 percent who like to live like pigs, but why should the other 90 percent have to bear the brunt of nanny ordinances?
And what will happen to the $100,000s collected by the city for the bag fee? Will there be any refund to the citizens for paying a double tax? This city is going to get into a lot of trouble in the near future because of the imposition of similar "double tax" fees in a number of city operations. This will not be the last time that a "good idea" will turn around and bite its promoters in the keister.