By Pauline Bartolone, California Healthline

For years, state lawmakers have been trying to eliminate secondhand smoke and cigarette butts from California’s 280 illustrious beaches and natural parks.

Once again, they have come up short.

Late Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed two bills that would have banned or drastically curtailed smoking and vaping in parks and beaches run by the state.

“If people can’t smoke even on a deserted beach, where can they?” Brown pondered in his veto message. “There must be some limit to the coercive power of government.”

Lawmakers who supported the legislation said banning smoking at state parks would protect people from health hazards associated with secondhand smoke and prevent the risks that cigarette butts pose to marine life.

The author of one of the bills, Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-Marin County), said he was disappointed by Brown’s decision. Trying to protect people and wildlife from “poisonous” cigarette butts is hardly coercive, he said in an emailed statement.

“The common person knows these dangers too well, and flippantly dismissing them isn’t cool. Even for a governor who is featured in ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine,” Levine said, referring to an interview with Brown that ran last week in the popular culture biweekly.

Levine’s bill would have established designated smoking areas at some parks and beaches and imposed a fine of $50 on anyone caught lighting up outside of those zones.

Another bill, by Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda), would have banned smoking altogether on state beaches and established smoking zones at state parks. The fine for any violation would have been $100.

Brown and former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger both have vetoed similar measures in the past. Last year, Brown said a smoking ban passed by the legislature was too “broad” and “punitive.”

Beachgoers in Southern California, speaking to a reporter before Brown issued Friday’s vetoes, gave mixed reviews to the idea.

“I’m all for banning smoking on the beach. I think it’s repulsive,” said MaryAnn Morton, a resident of Orange County’s Huntington Beach who regularly visits the shoreline, including a stretch of state-owned beach where smoking is permitted.

Some areas — including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Cruz, San Diego and most communities along the South Bay coast — already have ordinances banning smoking in parks and public beaches.

The proposal would outlaw smoking along Orange County’s five state beaches – Bolsa Chica, Huntington, Crystal Cove, Dana Point and San Clemente – and comes nearly a decade after cities along Orange County tackled the issue and extinguished smoking on the sand.

The ban would also include Los Angeles state beaches such as Leo Carrillo State Park north of Malibu and other state parks along the coast that include camping areas. Most Los Angeles beaches are run by the county, which already have an ordinance in place restricting smoking in areas.

In Orange County, state parks also manages the trails, open space and camping areas of Crystal Cove and El Morro. County beaches in Orange County have also not passed smoking bans on the beach, so areas such as Salt Creek or Capo Beach in Dana Point, or Sunset Beach in Huntington, still allow smoking.

In 2004, Huntington Beach was one of the first cities to ban smoking on the sand at city beaches. Huntington Beach recently extended its ban into beach parking lots.

The past decade has seen a major push against smoking in public, including bans at city parks, most college campuses and the OC Fair. Laguna Beach recently became the first in the county to ban smoking in the entire city.

Last year, San Clemente introduced an ordinance that outlaws smoking at beach entrances.

Some state parks, like San Onofre State Park, areas have already addressed fire concerns.

While smoking is legal on state beaches, it is banned on hiking trails located in the upland section of San Onofre State Beach extending well inland from I-5.

Some beachgoers said they didn’t think they would be harmed by secondhand smoke.

“Sometimes they ban things without a sole reason. … It feels more for votes,” said Jesse Miller, who admitted he and his friends had smoked on the city-managed stretch of Huntington Beach, where it is prohibited.

Glen Stainer, a cigar-smoking tourist from Pennsylvania, said he could get on board with a smoking ban that allowed for designated areas. But in general, people should not smoke when others are nearby, he said.

“I can see two sides” to the issue, Stainer said. “It’s not fair to have smoke being blown on little children that aren’t asking for that. And yet, a beach should be a public place where I can do what I want.”

Southern California News Group staff writer Laylan Connelly contributed to this report. California Healthline is a service of the California Health Care Foundation produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

California Healthline is a service of the California Health Care Foundation produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.