photo courtesy of John Illg
A bill to ban balloon releases sails through the legislature; so naturally, Governor Landry would sign it, right?
Wrong!
Governor Landry vetoed House Bill 581 authored by Rep. John Illg (R-Harahan), who says his colleagues were as shocked as he was when Landry turned it away.
“About at least a dozen legislators called me and said ‘Man, what happened with your bill?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ Reading the letter, I think the governor thought maybe it was more of an enforcement problem and that’s not what we were trying to do,” Illg said.
HB 581 would have made it illegal throughout the state for anyone over 16 to intentionally release balloons filled with gas lighter than air, with some specific exceptions like balloons for scientific meteorological purposes.
Violators would have been subjected to fines of $150 for a first offense, $250 for a second offense and $500 for a third and each additional subsequent offense.
In his veto message, Landry wrote that a law fining anyone for coordinating the release of a group of balloons would be impossible to enforce.
“My authority is to see that the laws of this state are faithfully executed. With this authority comes
the power to veto bills that are impossible or impractical to execute, and House Bill 581 is such a
bill. If signed into law, police departments across the state will be tasked with tracking down
locations from where balloons were released based off eyewitness accounts, only to be met-if
met at all-with excuses and finger-pointing to avoid meeting the bill’s requirements for a fine to
be issued. In addition, local governments have recently adopted ordinances of similar bans that
meets the needs of their community. This veto preserves a local government’s ability to prohibit a
release whenever its community finds a true need for one.”
Illg said people testified in favor of the bill, saying balloons that went up into the air eventually came down and ended up in waterways, harming marine wildlife.
“We had people, that are conservationists, talking about waterways and balloons that got into the waterways and caught in propellers and caused issues with some of the waterfowl,” Illg said.
Illg says he learned through this process that balloons were also harming cattle on farms throughout the state.
“The fact that they told me their livestock eat these things that cause digestive problems and intestinal distress, I had no idea,” Illg said.
Illg says he plans on bringing the bill back next year with some tweaks, in hopes that it will earn the governor’s signature the next time around.
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