(The Center Square) – The California Senate and now a key Assembly committee have passed a bill that would allow cities to charge businesses up to $650 for returning shopping carts stolen from them.
The measure, Senate Bill 753, was introduced at the urging of the city of San Jose, which faces major homelessness and budget crises.
“[San Jose] Mayor Mahan has a homelessness problem and a budget problem, and his solution to solve both of those is to charge retailers more to get their stolen property back,” said Daniel Conway of the California Grocers Association at the California Assembly Local Government Committee hearing that advanced the bill. “Our property is being stolen and taken offsite.”…