My balloon bill has burst. I introduced it based on an email from a group that mentioned that when balloons land, they can hurt sea life and cows and cattle in fields. While we are pretty far from an ocean, we do have a lot of cattle, so I figured it might be a good bill to run here.
However, because I wanted to get Democrats on board, I …
My balloon bill has burst. I introduced it based on an email from a group that mentioned that when balloons land, they can hurt sea life and cows and cattle in fields. While we are pretty far from an ocean, we do have a lot of cattle, so I figured it might be a good bill to run here.
However, because I wanted to get Democrats on board, I lowered the penalty from a misdemeanor to a violation. (You know how sensitive the Democrats are to over-criminalizing anything.) That turned out to be a bad idea because the current penalty for littering is a misdemeanor, so I would be lessening the penalty.
It also became apparent that releasing balloons is already illegal. It is littering because the balloons eventually land somewhere. However, the law is unenforceable because the police would have to see the person release the balloons and then follow them to see where they landed. Lawmaking is tough, which is why we earn $ 24k a year and all the lunches on the lawn we can eat.
However, having looked at the littering law, I may reduce the penalty for minor littering from its current misdemeanor level to a violation. It seems to be overkill to make someone a convicted criminal for dropping a gum wrapper on the sidewalk. We are not Shanghai, where they cane litterers.
My balloon bill has burst. I introduced it based on an email from a group that mentioned that when balloons land, they can hurt sea life and cows and cattle in fields. While we are pretty far from an ocean, we do have a lot of cattle, so I figured it might be a good bill to run here.
However, because I wanted to get Democrats on board, I lowered the penalty from a misdemeanor to a violation. (You know how sensitive the Democrats are to over-criminalizing anything.) That turned out to be a bad idea because the current penalty for littering is a misdemeanor, so I would be lessening the penalty.
It also became apparent that releasing balloons is already illegal. It is littering because the balloons eventually land somewhere. However, the law is unenforceable because the police would have to see the person release the balloons and then follow them to see where they landed. Lawmaking is tough, which is why we earn $ 24k a year and all the lunches on the lawn we can eat.
However, having looked at the littering law, I may reduce the penalty for minor littering from its current misdemeanor level to a violation. It seems to be overkill to make someone a convicted criminal for dropping a gum wrapper on the sidewalk. We are not Shanghai, where they cane litterers.
Sen. John Kavanagh