Oregon - cigarette butt law passed in State House..

May 6, 2009 - State Rep. Carolyn Tomei, D-Milwaukie, successfully urged her House colleagues Tuesday to approve a law (House Bill 2676) that bans cigarette butt littering. The bill passed, 34-25. If it passes the Senate, the law would subject violators to a $90 fine or up to 48 hours of community service — by picking up cigarette butts, if judges follow the advice of lawmakers who voiced their preference for how future violators would be treated under the law.

Some opponents ridiculed the bill as a trivial pursuit in light of Oregon’s 12 percent unemployment and multibillion-dollar budget shortfall.

Tomei said Oregonians long ago reformed their litter-tossing ways, thanks both to a change in societal values and to anti-littering laws passed in the 1960s and ’70s. Oregon’s littering law needs the update, she contended, because it could be read to exclude cigarette butts. The bill was brought to the Legislature by a former state parks ranger, Deb Schallert.

Oregon would become the first state to pass a butt-specific littering law.

Related news brief: Will the Oregon cigarette butt law pass this year..

Reference: House oks law to ban cigarette butt littering The debate, however, brings up another — whether the bill is or isn’t trivial against the state’s harsh economic realities by David Steves, The Register-Guard, 5/6/2009.