A 14-3 vote has defeated a resolution being pushed by Jonesboro Rep. Jack McFarland in the House Transportation Committee aimed at reducing the number of billboards on Louisiana roadways. The effort is being backed by Louisiana’s trucking industry. McFarland said ads for crash attorneys are impacting the cost of doing business for truckers.
“Their insurance rates are now more than their truck notes. Why? Because we’ve allowed an environment of litigation to be cultivated and perpetuated by what we see and read everyday as we drive,” said McFarland.
McFarland also listed clutter and distraction as other reasons to reduce the number of billboards. The resolution called for a moratorium on new billboard construction, unless it was a digital billboard replacing other billboards.
“If you take down six, you can put up one digital that advertises eight advertisements on it. That reduces the blight and the occurrence of them and the distraction from them,” said McFarland.
Shreveport Rep. Barbara Norton said billboards are not the biggest issue when it comes to blight on the roads.
“Do you all not see all the trash on the ground? Do you all not see the cans? Do you all not see all the garbage on the grounds? Why would somebody be driving and looking up? It doesn’t make sense. People are not doing that,” said Norton.
Lamar Advertising owns a majority of the billboards in the state and CEO Sean Reilly says Louisiana has seen a net reduction of billboards in recent years.
“Over the years, a couple will come down, maybe one will go up, and that’s basically been the ratio of the last two years, so there’s no net new billboards. This is clearly not about billboard proliferation. Again, we all know what it’s about,” said Reilly.
Reilly says the state has about 2% of the nation’s highways and 2% of the nation’s billboards.
