Indiana smoking ban plan still has some fire
NDIANAPOLIS — It wasn’t a surprise to state legislators when the General Assembly’s committee deadline passed Monday without a proposed smoking ban moving to the Senate.
Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, told The Associated Press earlier this month the Senate isn’t ready to consider a statewide ban this year because it could hurt businesses during this down economy.
“It’s so nonsensical to say this isn’t the year,” said Rep. Charlie Brown, a Gary Democrat who wrote the bill proposing the smoking ban. “It’s just sad we’re always the last state to pass these good public policies.”
Brown said he plans to propose the smoking ban again this year as an amendment to a Senate bill. If that long shot doesn’t work, he will try for a ban again in 2011.
“We’ll be back next year in full force,” he said.
Even before the smoking ban died in a Senate committee, Brown’s bill was watered down with exemptions.
The original bill exempted casinos and pari-mutuel horse racing venues. Other House members added more exemptions for bars, restaurants, fraternal clubs, smoke shops and small businesses not visited by the public.
There are 37 states with smoke-free laws for workplaces, and 27 of those states ban smoking in bars and restaurants. Michigan’s smoking ban for bars, restaurants and workplaces is scheduled to take effect in May.
Local governments in Indiana are able to adopt rules regulating smoking, but Brown said people who travel around the state shouldn’t have to understand the vast patchwork of local rules just to avoid breathing secondhand smoke.
Smoke-free advocates in Indiana did win one victory in this year’s General Assembly.
A Senate bill to abolish the executive board of Indiana Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation, and transfer the program to the Indiana Department of Health, failed in a House committee.
The program’s supporters feared shifting the program would have hurt its effectiveness.
By KEVIN ALLEN, Southbendtribune
