A pair of California legislators will try once again to get a parks and beaches smoking ban passed into law, and are hopeful that with a new governor coming into office, they will finally dodge the veto pen.
On Monday, Sen. Steve Glazer (D-7) and Assemblymember Marc Levine (D-10) introduced SB 8 to the legislature, which effectively seeks to prohibit smoking in state-owned parks and on state-owned beaches. The bill would make it an infraction punishable by a fine of up to $25 for a person to smoke on a state coastal beach or in a unit of the state park system, or to dispose of used cigar or cigarette waste on a state coastal beach or in a unit of the state park system unless the disposal is made in an appropriate waste receptacle.
Similar bills have been passed by the California Legislature three times in recent years, only to be vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Last year, Brown wrote that his opinion on the matter had still not changed, and that “we have many rules telling us what we can’t do and these are wide open spaces.”
Brown will be replaced by Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco who has most recently served as Lieutenant Governor of California since 2011. His term will begin on Jan. 7, 2019.
The bill will be eligible to receive its first action as of Jan. 3.
Featured image by Henri Sivonen from Helsinki, Finland [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.