Another Ban Failed: LA Says NO To Ban.
Senate snuffs out smoking ban bill
Casinos, restaurants opposed measure
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
By Laura Maggi
Capital bureau
BATON ROUGE — People can continue to light up in public places, as the Senate on Monday defeated legislation that would have banned smoking in establishments such as restaurants, bars and casinos.
Sen. Rob Marionneaux Jr., D-Livonia, said his legislation would provide healthier, more-pleasant environments for families to dine together.
“For once the state of Louisiana could be in the forefront of something good,” he said after lighting up a cigar during his closing for effect. Marionneaux extinguished the cigar after being reminded by Senate President Donald Hines, D-Bunkie, that smoking is not allowed on the Senate floor.
No senator spoke directly against Senate Bill 354, which failed by a 14-19 vote.
The Louisiana Restaurant Association was against the measure because restaurant owners want to decide for themselves whether to allow smoking, said Jim Funk, the chief executive officer of the group.
Funk noted that many restaurants already try to accommodate customers who don’t like tobacco smoke, allowing smoking only in the bar or providing people with extensive nonsmoking areas.
According to Marionneaux’s research, eight states ban smoking in both restaurants and bars, and three other states ban smoking in either workplaces or just restaurants. He said studies show that banning smoking in these places decreases health problems from secondhand smoke, as well as leading to an overall decrease in smoking.
Under the proposal, called the Louisiana Clean Indoor Air Act, smoking would have been prohibited in a laundry list of places besides restaurants, including public buildings, libraries, museums and pool halls.
The legislation originally exempted gambling establishments, but an amendment by a Senate committee included casinos in the smoking prohibition.
Marionneaux sought to strip casinos from his smoking ban, saying that might give his legislation a better chance of survival in the Legislature.
But several senators said that exempting casinos would give them an unfair advantage if restaurants were forced to stop customers from smoking, saying people who craved tobacco would just head to bars and eating establishments at nearby casinos.
“When you gamble in Louisiana, you have the same problem of secondhand smoke as when you go into a restaurant,” said Sen. Jay Dardenne, R-Baton Rouge. The amendment to take the casinos out failed 3-29.
The casino lobby was against the proposal, which Wade Duty, executive director of the Casino Association of Louisiana, said would put riverboats and other gambling outfits at a disadvantage compared with casinos in Mississippi and on Indian reservations in Louisiana, which both allow smoking. “Gaming is an adult activity; smoking is an adult activity,” he said in a phone interview.
Laura Maggi can be reached at lmaggi@timespicayune.com or (225) 342-5590.
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Senate stubs out proposal to ban smoking in bars, eateries
A proposal to ban smoking in bars, restaurants and casinos in Louisiana was snuffed out by the state Senate on Monday.
Sen. Rob Marionneaux said his bill would allow bar and restaurant employees to work without having to breathe second-hand smoke and allow families to eat out without sitting next to smokers. He said Louisiana should join the other seven states that have statewide bans in bars and restaurants.
“For once, the state of Louisiana can be at the forefront of something good,” said Marionneaux, D-Livonia.
But the bill faced heavy opposition from the alcohol, gambling and restaurant industries, plus the Legislature’s history of rejecting smoking bans. In 2003, lawmakers gave local governments the power to restrict smoking, but the bill prohibited any local government from banning smoking in bars, gambling operations, tobacco vendors, hotel rooms and restaurants that serve liquor.
Marionneaux, a cigar smoker, tried to spark his colleagues’ interest in the bill by lighting a stogie on the Senate floor before asking them to pass the measure. He stubbed it out quickly, after Senate President Don Hines asked a sergeant-at-arms to enforce the ban on smoking inside the Capitol.
The bill was rejected in a 14-19 vote. Marionneaux can bring it up for another
http://2theadvocate.com/stories/060605/pol_stubs001.shtml
