The Richmond Register

Local News

March 14, 2012

House panel votes, 10-2, to impose public smoking ban

By Roger Alford Associated Press

FRANKFORT — FRANKFORT — One of the nation’s top tobacco-producing states would ban residents from smoking cigarettes in public places under a bill that cleared its first legislative hurdle on Tuesday.

The House Health and Welfare Committee voted 10-2 to protect people from secondhand smoke inside workplaces, jails, bars, restaurants and even private homes if those residences are used for child care or adult daycare.

The outcome was far different than when Chairman Tom Burch, D-Louisville, first proposed a statewide smoking ban in Kentucky some three decades ago. The Louisville Democrat said when he stepped forward to present his bill, every lawmaker on the committee lit a cigarette.

“I have a right also to breathe clean fresh air, and when somebody blows cigarette smoke in your face that takes that right away,” Burch said.

The proposal also has the endorsement of House Speaker Greg Stumbo, who said Tuesday he supports calling the measure for a floor vote. Proponents had worried that House leaders might opt to let the bill languish and die this year, a legislative election year, to avoid forcing incumbent lawmakers to take a stand on what is considered a hot-button issue in Kentucky.

Votes on the measure had been postponed twice in the past week because key supporters had been unavailable for meetings, causing concern among supporters that the measure may have been in trouble.

State Rep. Ben Waide, one of the two Republicans who voted against the measure, said he considers the proposed smoking ban an overreach by state government.

“We all have personal rights, and I think that includes the right to purchase a business and operate a business within reasonable boundaries,” Waide said. “And I think that this piece of legislation takes government into an area where government should not be. Takes it just one step too far. Even though the legislation is well meaning and will probably have a good effect on the health issue that it addresses, it is not the role of government to go this far. There are property rights here that are being trampled.”

Such a measure has been discussed in Kentucky for years, but lawmakers in what is a major burley tobacco growing state have been reluctant to tackle the issue.

Rep. Susan Westrom, D-Lexington, said she isn’t sure when, or if, the measure will be presented for a floor vote in the House.

“My concern is I don’t think it has the votes to get out of the Senate,” Westrom said Monday. “If we don’t have the votes to get it out the Senate, I don’t think we’ll vote on it in the House.”

Many local jurisdictions in Kentucky, including Louisville and Lexington, already have adopted bans on smoking in public places.

Kentucky Chamber of Commerce President Dave Adkisson said only 9 percent of the businesses his organization represents oppose a statewide smoking ban while some 70 percent support the idea.

Already, Adkisson pointed out, many local jurisdictions in Kentucky, including Louisville and Lexington, bar people from lighting up in public places.

“Most of the public has come to these policies and embraced these policies as they’ve been enacted across the state,” he said.

“We now feel like it’s time for this to be statewide and not a patchwork of a variety of policies.”

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