West Chester stirs up a bad law with plastic ban

Council voted 4 to 3 to pass a ban on the use of plastic bags and straws by businesses in the Borough. .

Recently West Chester Borough Council voted 4 to 3 to pass a ban on the use of plastic bags and straws by businesses in the Borough. While somewhat well intentioned, in the process Council purposely violated a state moratorium on these type of laws that was included in the recent state budget signed by Governor Wolf.

While the moratorium was part of a deal cut to benefit State Senator Jake Corman, the fact remains that until it expires in July of 2020, no local municipality can pass this type of legislation without being in violation.

The argument advanced by some on council was that they must stand up to an immoral state law. That is not how our legal system works. If you disagree with a law the process is to garner public support to convince the proper elected officials to repeal the law, vote out those in support of the law or challenge it in court.

West Chester Borough Council did none of these. Instead by thumbing their noses at Harrisburg they have created a situation that opens the borough up to likely legal action from either the state or private companies that could cost the taxpayers of West Chester an undetermined amount of money in legal fees with an equally likely bad outcome.

With the encouragement of others, Council has put a popular cause and a desire to feel good about themselves ahead of the protection of the taxpayers they were elected to serve.

The prudent course of action would have been to wait until next July when the moratorium expires to move forward with this legislation. That in concert with a push from Mayor Diane Herron, Council and others in the community to ask for voluntary compliance by Borough businesses to not use plastics bags and straws would have been the proper course of action. Many local businesses have already done so. The ordinance was a cause in search of a problem that hardly exists in West Chester.

This move also sets up a dangerous precedent of local municipalities ignoring state law whenever they see fit. The rule of law it a pillar of what makes the United States the greatest nation on earth. Otherwise local governments can willy nilly do whatever they want.

Imagine if the Pennsylvania legislature passed a ban on assault style weapons, then certain municipalities ignored the law and encouraged their residents to open carry these weapons on the grounds they disagreed with the state law. Anarchy would ensue.

We have a system of government in place to handle this plastic bag issue. Work within the system to rectify the problem. I urge West Chester Borough Council and the Mayor to repeal this ordinance until it can be adopted legally.

Bill Mason