Facing Defeat, Kopp Delays Vote on Ban of Portable Spray Paint

SACRAMENTO — The national paint industry won a first-round victory Tuesday, temporarily derailing an anti-graffiti bill in California that would outlaw portable spray paint cans beginning in 1998.

Facing defeat in the Senate Criminal Procedure Committee, state Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) sought to salvage his bill (SB 1696) by delaying a vote until May 5 and trying to negotiate a compromise.

But Kopp angrily told the committee he had virtually no hope of reaching a settlement with an industry he said probably makes “four or five or even six times more from selling the products to remove [graffiti], rather than to prevent” spray paint vandalism.

The bill, sponsored by county district attorneys, would ban the sale and possession of aerosol paint containers starting Jan. 1, 1998, unless they could be activated by a fixed source of power, such as an electrical outlet.

The paint industry, which called Kopp’s claims exaggerated, sent a platoon of witnesses to attack the heavily lobbied bill. Chief among their arguments was that banning aerosol spray paints would unfairly penalize homeowners, hobbyists, businesses and other legitimate consumers for the illegal acts of a relatively few abusers.