California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill which proposed a state-wide smoking ban in city parks and beaches. Calling the proposed bill “an improper intrusion of government into people’s lives”, Schwarzenegger felt unable to sign senate bill 4, which was proposed by Long Beach senator Jenny Oropeza.

Oropeza commented “I’m sorry the governor did not agree with this widely supported effort to increase public awareness about the environmental threats carelessly tossed cigarettes are doing to our marine life and to the great outdoors”. The bill was supported by more than 50 groups and organizations, as well as by a number of California newspaper editorial boards including The Los Angeles Times, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Torrance Daily Breeze, the Riverside Press-Enterprise and the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.

Discarded cigarette butts, which are frequently found as marine debris and are considered a serious risk for California’s forest fires, were a major concern of the bill. “According to the California Department of Forestry (over a five-year average), smoking has been found to annually cause more than 100 California forest fires and destroy more than 3,400 acres”.

For Schwarzenegger, the bill went too far. It crossed “an important threshold between state power and command and local decision-making”. While indicating an understanding for the cigarette butt challenge for California’s beaches, Schwarzenegger offered suggestions that such smoking bans should be decisions for the Department of Parks and Recreation and for local rather than statewide government. In addition, he concluded “I believe a more appropriate response is to increase the fines and penalties already in law for littering in our parks and on our beaches”.