HomeMy WebLinkAboutSignature Letter - SB 753 (Cortese) - 09.15.2025September 15, 2025
The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor, State of California
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: Request to Pass SB 753 (Cortese) Abandoned Shopping Cart Recovery (As Amended
03/24/25)
Dear Governor Newsom:
The City of Cupertino writes to urge your support and passage of Senator Cortese’s Senate Bill
(SB) 753, which would provide additional tools to local governments to address abandoned
shopping carts in communities.
Abandoned shopping carts have created hazards by blocking streets and sidewalks and
disrupting open spaces and waterways. SB 753 would modernize the laws requiring the
collection of abandoned shopping carts and provide local governments and retailers with better
tools to address this issue.
Under current law, local governments must store abandoned shopping carts in an impound lot,
where they sit until a retailer retrieves them. This process has inherent challenges, especially for
large municipalities, which would need to store hundreds of abandoned shopping carts at any
given time to comply with this provision. The storage space and staff cost required to operate
an impound lot is a burdensome and ineffective solution to this issue.
SB 753 would allow local governments to return carts directly to retailers by picking them up
and immediately returning them without the current requirement for three-day notice or
storage in an impound facility. Additionally, this measure would allow for the recovery of the
actual costs of managing the program. This strikes the appropriate balance of creating an
efficient system to retrieve and return abandoned shopping carts while incentivizing retailers to
work collaboratively with local governments to recover their stolen property.
For these reasons, the City of Cupertino supports SB 753 and would request that you sign the
bill into law.
Sincerely,
Liang Chao
Mayor
City of Cupertino
cc.The Honorable Josh Becker
The Honorable Patrick Ahrens