If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s what Harahan Representative John Illg is doing with legislation to ban outdoor balloon releases. Last year, his bill to create a new law to ban the intentional release of balloons sailed through the legislature, only to have Governor Landry veto it, saying it would be unenforceable. At the Love The Boot Week kickoff event, Illg says that’s no reason not to have a law on the books.
“The governor said, ‘I don’t want to stretch people thin.’ I said, ‘Governor, speeding’s against the law, we don’t catch all of them either, but we let them know that it’s against the law,"” Illg said.
So this time, Illg’s bill adds intentional balloon releases to the state’s existing law against intentional littering. This year’s bill, House Bill 851, has already passed in the House and is just one Senate vote away from landing on Landry’s desk. Illg says he learned last year that his proposed balloon release ban would not only reduce litter, but it would also protect the state’s livestock.
“When the balloons come down, the livestock and cattle, they just graze. And they unintentionally eat a balloon that’s fallen into their field, which could cause death to these animals. It’s a hardship on all these farmers,” Illg explained.
Illg says passing a law at the state level is all well and good, assuming it can gain Landry’s signature this time, but a state law doesn’t go far enough.
“You know what would be great with the balloon release ban, is that if we did it nationwide, because that’s where you really need to go. Because litter that goes up in Mississippi may wind up here,” Illg noted.