State House passes smoking ban for state buildings
State smoking ban will cause extra problems
July 14, 2006
B.R. Daugherty
B.R. Daugherty
Society should be warned about accepting gifts from the Greeks, because the gift may be a Trojan horse.
Society should be warned about good deeds done by the Tennessee government. The good deed may be a Trojan horse.
The Tennessee government passed a law banning all tobacco products from state property. That is going to cause maybe 10,000 Tennessee government employees to resign. Among that number will be some of the best or else most experienced employees. That is going to cause a lot of damage to the Tennessee government.
Therefore, one has to consider, was the banning of smoking in state buildings worth the trouble the law will cause?
B.R. Daugherty
Clifton, Tenn.
Clifton, Tenn.
Smoking ban leaves lasting effects on Legislative Plaza
June 21, 2006
John Rodgers
John Rodgers
One week after a ban on smoking in Legislative Plaza went into effect, the before and after picture — as well as the previously smoky air — have already become clearer.
As time has passed, smoking bans in most office buildings have become commonplace, with society becoming more averse to tobacco and its secondhand effects.
But in Legislative Plaza, time had stood relatively still. Journalists could still puff away in the lower-level press suite, typing their stories while dragging on Marlboro Reds. State employees routinely went either alone or in small groups to uncarpeted areas — where smoking was allowed in the Plaza — and toked on their brand of choice socially.
And during the legislative session, many lobbyists and some lawmakers did the same.
Catching up to the 21st century
Now, time has accelerated into fast forward and Legislative Plaza is catching up to the 21st century.
“Its time has come,” said Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley).
The reason: the General Assembly, whose members routinely snuff out bills that would restrict smoking and tobacco use, passed a bill prohibiting smoking in all state buildings.
Gov. Phil Bredesen, who ceremonially signed the smoking ban into law Tuesday, said — looking back to 1994 when he first ran for governor — that he didn’t think this day would ever happen.
“The world’s come a long way since then,” Bredesen said.
The after-effects of the smoking ban have been sudden and noticeable. The more than 30 ashtrays dotting Legislative Plaza and the adjoining War Memorial Building have been collected and stored. The smoking haze that once lingered over the lower pressroom has disappeared.
“No smoking” signs could come as soon as this week. But the most lasting affect, and the most noticeable, has been on the smokers, who must make routine walks outside to the main entrance of Legislative Plaza.
They often bring some furniture with them as four chairs usually parked inside are routinely lined just outside the door to the Plaza along with two ashtrays. One of those smokers who uses the chairs, Vanessa Cooper, a legislative staffer, said going outside to smoke is not a major inconvenience at this point because of the time of year.
“It’s summertime,” Cooper said. “When wintertime gets here, I don’t know.”
But smokers taking a break outside won’t have to use the chairs for too much longer.
The state, as part of a $15 million renovation plan to Legislative Plaza, is scheduled to build concrete benches and large planters as part of increased security for the building. The project is likely to be completed before the next legislative session starts, said Lola Potter, spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Finance and Administration.
The final design has not yet been completed, but the benches will be placed around the area where the banished smokers now congregate.
Potter and Fitzhugh, the bill’s main sponsor, said the smoking ban had nothing to do with the state’s decision to build the benches where smokers now congregate.
“This is a project that’s been under way for years,” Potter said, adding the Finance Department, which coordinates the building commission, “had nothing to do” with the ban.
But in a few months, smokers at Legislative Plaza will likely have a place to put both their cigarette butts and their own. Cooper said she wishes the state would have built the benches first before passing the smoking ban.
Governor Signs Smoking Ban for State Buildings
6/20/2006
Gov. Phil Bredesen signed Tuesday a bill that prohibits smoking in state buildings.
Bredesen said he didn’t think this bill would happen in the short term, but he’s glad it did.
“I think this one is a big step forward. It puts the state firmly on record. It certainly makes for a much healthier work place for our state employees, and I’m proud to sign this bill,” Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tennessee, said.
This bill will take effect in July of next year.
Bredesen Wants More Smoking Bans
6/20/2006
There’s no more smoking in Tennessee state buildings. The governor signed a smoking ban bill into law Tuesday, and he said he wants even more smoking bans passed.
Gov. Phil Bredesen said this may be the first of many bills to come. Other bills may deal with banning smoking in other public places like restaurants and bars. The governor said he knows that that is not an issue that will easy to win.
“I’ll sign this and make it law,” Bredesen said as he signed the bill.
Bredesen took a step forward for preventative health care in snuffing out secondhand smoke.
“I think you’ll see this kind of breaks the dam. There will be further of these bills that will come up, and they will be debated, discussed, what they do economically, what they do health-wise, but this is the beginning of what I think will be a long series of bills,” Bredesen said.
There are some who clearly believe smoking bans impinge on a person’s freedom and people who believe they have the right to be free of smoke wherever they go.
“We hope that all employees will be protected in the same way that state employees are now protected in their workplace,” Chart lobbyist Chastity Mitchell said.
“Tell them not to follow a tractor trailer or a bus or anything else, OK? There’s smoke everywhere. Don’t pick on smokers,” a man said.
Even bar owners where the clean air replaces the drinks said it’s not fair.
“I’m eating dinner, finishing my meal, I like to enjoy a cigarette,” Matt Moss, owner of a downtown oxygen bar, said.
Moss said nonsmokers go to his business for health and smokers use it to detox. He has lived in cities where smoking is banned, and he said it’s a forced and unwelcomed change in lifestyle.
“It’s just extremely inconvenient, and life is based around convenience,” Moss said.
Bredesen said he did not expect this bill to pass and does not expect an easy time with further bills.
That ban in state buildings like the Capitol will take place in July of next year. It is the end of the legislative session, so it is unlikely any other smoking ban bills will hit the governor’s desk any time soon.
Ashtrays in Storage, Smokers Outside After Ban Becomes Law
June 16, 2006
The ashtrays that once dotted the landscape at the legislative office complex have been banished to a storage room it’s a not-so-subtle reminder that smokers are now required to head outside of state-run buildings to light up.
Governor Bredesen earlier this week signed into law a smoking ban for Tennessee’s 528 buildings, 172 state-owned and 356 maintained and operated by the state.
Connie Frederick of the office of legislative administration says she saw no reason to delay implementation of the smoking ban following the governor’s signature.
Legislative staffers who used to congregate in smoking areas inside the complex have taken to dragging office furniture outdoors to take their smoke breaks in front of the entrance to Legislative Plaza.
Tennessee lawmakers approve smoking ban
May. 28, 2006
LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Bubba Buchanan, a chef in the Tennessee Legislative Plaza cafeteria, doesn’t like the idea of not being able to smoke whenever and wherever he wants.
But if the governor signs a new anti-smoking bill, Buchanan said he’ll do what everybody else will have to do: “I guess I’ll go outside,” he said.
Tennessee lawmakers approved a bill Saturday that would ban smoking in all buildings owned or operated by the state.
Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, who describes himself as an “avid nonsmoker,” has not yet said whether he will sign bill.
The House voted 80-5 to ban smoking in Tennessee’s 528 buildings — 172 state-owned and 356 maintained and operated by the state. Three Democrats and two Republicans voted against the bill.
The Senate passed a similar bill earlier this week and agreed Saturday with minor changes made by the House.
Rep. Craig Fitzhugh, a Ripley Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said, “This is a very healthy and symbolic thing for us to do.”
Anti-smoking bills have traditionally struggled in Tennessee, one of the nation’s top tobacco-producing states.
But the declining tobacco harvest in the state has coincided with greater momentum for anti-smoking measures in the Legislature. Tennessee’s 2004 harvest of 65 million pounds was about half the output of a decade earlier.
Jerome Cochran, R-Johnson City, was one of the five House lawmakers to vote against the ban.
“I didn’t see any problem with providing areas within the Capitol for smokers,” he said. They shouldn’t be treated as outcasts.”
State House passes smoking ban for state buildings
05/27/06
By TRENT SEIBERT, Staff Writer
By TRENT SEIBERT, Staff Writer
The state House has approved a bill that for the first time would ban smoking throughout the entire state Capitol complex and the state prison system – pretty much the last state-owned indoor spaces where it’s still OK to light up.
The bill, which was passed by the state Senate earlier this week, passed by an 80-5 vote in the House today. The bill now needs the Senate’s approval on one small change for it to head to the governor for his signature into law.
Most state government buildings banned smoking years ago, but the state Capitol complex – including the Capitol and the interconnected offices at Legislative Plaza and the War Memorial Building – were under the legislature’s purview, and they continued to allow smoking for some time.
Smoking was banned a few years ago in the Capitol itself and throughout most of Legislative Plaza, but some common areas in the Plaza have remained smoking-allowed to this day. The bill passed by the House and Senate would put a stop to that.
The bill would also give the state prison system a year to ban smoking, during which time state Correction Commissioner George Little said he will take steps to help educate inmates about the ban and try to help them quit smoking.
An amendment the House put on the bill this morning allows hotels at state parks to continue to allow smoking in some of their rooms. Because of that change, the bill will need the Senate’s approval once more before it can be sent to Gov. Phil Bredesen.
Senate passes Capitol, prison smoking ban
05/24/06
TRENT SEIBERT
TRENT SEIBERT
Years after smoking had been all but banned in state buildings, legislators may be about to snuff their smoking habits by banning the practice at the state Capitol.
The measure is part of a bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday that prohibits smoking in all of Tennessee’s 528 buildings, including prisons, but it’s the possible ban at the Capitol that has taken many by surprise. For years, lawmakers, lobbyists and the journalists covering them have filled the Statehouse’s hallways with smoke by puffing away, legally, on cigarettes and cigars.
“My daughter wants me to quit,” said Mike Murphy, a lobbyist seldom seen without a cigarette. “It gives me an excuse to stop.”
Smoking at the Capitol was seen by many as lawmakers flaunting their power to enact laws, but not follow suit with laws regulating themselves.
“I think it would be hypocritical not to extend the ban to this building,” said House Minority Leader Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville. The House is likely to vote on the ban this week, its leaders said.
Many who have been fighting for years for the ban at the Capitol say the winners would be the thousands of students who walking through the haze on field trips each year.
“People have to walk through that,” said Brittany Hummer, a 10th-grader from Antioch High School. “It’s not right, especially at the state Capitol.” •
Capitol smoking ban passes state Senate
05/23/06
TRENT SEIBERT
A ban on smoking at the state Capitol is closer to becoming law, with the Senate unanimously approving the ban this morning.
TRENT SEIBERT
A ban on smoking at the state Capitol is closer to becoming law, with the Senate unanimously approving the ban this morning.
“I think it gives us a cleaner environment,” said Sen. Curtis Person, R-Memphis. “And we are role models for a lot of people. Smoking here did not set a good example for young people.”
The bill would ban smoking in Tennessee’s 528 buildings: 172 state-owned and 356 maintained and operated by the state.
Right now, smoking is prohibited in all but two state office buildings. The two exceptions are Legislative Plaza and the War Memorial Building, where legislators, lobbyists, reporters, staff and visitors still can smoke in designated areas.
The Capitol has exempted itself from smoking bans it imposed on other state buildings in the past.
“This legislation will save taxpayers money by reducing health-care costs for state workers and by reducing the number of employees who take disability too early,” said Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden, and a sponsor of the measure.
The House still must take up the legislation and the governor must sign it before it becomes law.
For more on this story, pick up tomorrow’s Tennessean.
Smoking ban for state buildings considered
May 22, 2006
LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
NASHVILLE — When Mary Nell Bryan suffered a blood clot that nearly killed her, doctors assumed it was a result of smoking.
“They kept asking me how long I had been smoking, and I told them I hadn’t,” said Bryan, who as president of the Children’s Hospital Alliance of Tennessee also is a lobbyist.
Bryan’s illness eventually was traced to smoking — not hers, but the secondhand smoke she has inhaled during nearly 10 years working at the state Capitol. Her pulmonary embolism — a condition that occurs when a vessel is blocked in the lungs — is the reason the nonsmoking Bryan has joined supporters of a bill moving through the Legislature that would ban smoking in all buildings owned or operated by the state.
The proposal has done surprisingly well in a state that is among the nation’s top tobacco producers.
The legislation is scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor Tuesday and the House version made it to a House subcommittee, where it has been placed among bills to be evaluated after the Legislature works out its regular budget.
Roy Herron, the bill’s Senate sponsor, hopes the measure passes because he says it’s needed to maintain a healthy work environment.
“This legislation will save taxpayers money by reducing health care costs for state workers and by reducing the number of employees who take disability too early,” said the Dresden Democrat.
The bill would ban smoking in Tennessee’s 528 buildings — 172 state-owned and 356 maintained and operated by the state. Even areas of the legislative office complex where smoking is now allowed would be covered by the ban.
A number of states within the past three years have failed to ban smoking in a public place or publicly owned building, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Currently, 11 states have laws similar to the one being proposed in Tennessee. Other states have provisions that ban smoking in certain areas of their Capitols, according to the NCSL.
Lawmakers agreed in 2004 to ban smoking in the state House and Senate chambers after Capitol renovations and redecoration that included having to remove smoke residue from the walls.
Most anti-tobacco measures go the way of this year’s proposal to ban smoking in restaurants — killed by the House Agriculture Committee. But the state building smoking ban bill wasn’t assigned to that committee.
While there are those who oppose the legislation, Donna Anderson feels a ban might actually help her kick the smoking habit she’s had for more than a decade.
“My preference is to quit smoking anyway,” said Anderson, an assistant to a state representative. “Having to leave and go to a separate area to smoke has helped me cut back already, so the ban would be beneficial to me.”
Barbara Forbes, a nurse practitioner and director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Smoking Prevention and Cessation, said smoking inside is simply not healthy for those who don’t smoke.
She said that annually about 3,000 cases of lung cancer have been attributed to passive smoke and over 50,000 cases of cardiovascular death are related to it.
“Passive smoke is not passive,” she said. “It has all the carcinogens and it has all of the toxins that active smoke has.”
Jennifer Golisch, a spokeswoman for cigarette maker Philip Morris, said the company doesn’t have a position on the Tennessee legislation.
“Philip Morris understands and agrees that people should be able to avoid being around secondhand smoke, particularly in places they must go,” Golisch said.
“People should be guided by the conclusions of public health officials,” Golisch said.
Tennessee Correction Commissioner George Little is one who is adhering to the warnings about passive smoke.
Even if the bill doesn’t pass, Little plans to experiment with a smoking ban at two of his prisons. If the bill is enacted, correctional facilities have a year to go nonsmoking.
“Within that year, we would go through a notification process for the inmates and the staff to let them know it’s coming,” he said. “We don’t want to hit everybody at once.”
Tennessee follows a growing list of states that have implemented partial or full bans on tobacco products inside prisons. The Federal Bureau of Prisons banned smoking in most of its facilities in 2004.
Smoking ban bill passes reopened Senate committee
5/16/2006
Elise Stephens
A proposal to ban smoking in all buildings owned or operated by the state is staying alive in the final days of the Legislature.
Elise Stephens
A proposal to ban smoking in all buildings owned or operated by the state is staying alive in the final days of the Legislature.
The legislation sponsored by Senator Roy Herron of Dresden unanimously passed the Senate State and Local Government Committee today after it was reopened to take up the measure. It’s now scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor.
Lawmakers are hoping to wrap up next week.
The House version of Herron’s bill made it to the House Finance budget subcommittee, where it was placed among bills to be evaluated after the Legislature works out its regular budget.
However, Herron said the legislation is needed and he’s optimistic about its passage.
Smoking Ban Refuses to be Put Out
4/19/2006
A proposal to ban smoking in all indoor public places in Tennessee stayed alive in the General Assembly Wednesday afternoon.
The House Government Operations Committee approved the proposal to ban smoking in all buildings owned or operated by the state.
The bill still faces a difficult hurdle in its next stop: the House Agriculture Committee.
That panel has killed several smoking ban proposals this session and has technically completed its business for the session.
4/19/2006
A proposal to ban smoking in all indoor public places in Tennessee stayed alive in the General Assembly Wednesday afternoon.
The House Government Operations Committee approved the proposal to ban smoking in all buildings owned or operated by the state.
The bill still faces a difficult hurdle in its next stop: the House Agriculture Committee.
That panel has killed several smoking ban proposals this session and has technically completed its business for the session.
From: Robert Pritchard
To: steven.crabtree@wvlt-tv.com ; wvlt.news@wvlt-tv.com ; brian.gregory@wvlt-tv.com
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 7:33 PM
Subject: smoking ban poll
To: steven.crabtree@wvlt-tv.com ; wvlt.news@wvlt-tv.com ; brian.gregory@wvlt-tv.com
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 7:33 PM
Subject: smoking ban poll
If your news anchors are going to tell people that somthing is on your website, then it should be on the website before the news is announced. This is the second time they have told viewers to go to your website for info or to take a poll. Well I have been all over your website and cannot find the first smoking ban poll
They said they would announce the results on the 11:00 news. I guess you can just say we had more people for a smoking ban than not. That is how most everything to deal with smokers is handled by the anti-smoking groups. I wonder what right they will take away next. They want to take the smokers right away, and government wants to tell people who own the restaurant, pay taxes to the state, and pay for his overhead. Now they want to tell him what he can do in his own business.
Obese people and soda’s are the next hit list. by the time we are getting at the age to pass on, government will be so big and telling people what to do about everything. You know, like the Nazi’s and the Communist, told there people what and how to live their lives. After all, they can already take your property away if they feel it would benefit the community to have some rich developer build a strip mall on your land.
You can shake your head no, or say that will never happen, BUTT, May 2005 when I did a interview on Channel 10 about Sullivans going non-smoking, I made the comment, ” who will they go after next, the obese people who eat to much”. BINGO, eleven months ago and here they have started on obesity and havecompared soda and obesity to smoking and cancer.
Be sure you have a high number for the smoking ban poll tonight at 11:00pm. That is how the anti-smoking groups do things, they make the data fit their need.
Very Respectfully,
Robert F. Pritchard – mailto:info@yessir-tn.info
Southeast Regional Director of The Smoker’s Club, Inc.
YesSIR of Tennessee – http://www.yessir-tn.info
The Smoker’s Club, Inc. & Video Archive – http://www.smokersclub.com
Smokers Rights Newsletter – http://www.smokersclubinc.com
Statewide indoor smoking ban advances in Senate
4/11/2006
Katie Allison Granju
A measure to ban indoor smoking in Tennessee surprisingly passed through a state Senate committee today, injecting new momentum into a previously dying effort.
The bill sponsored by Senator Jim Tracy of Shelbyville is modeled on legislation passed in Georgia last year. It would ban smoking in all buildings owned or operated by the state, indoor public places and enclosed areas of employment.
Acknowledging that the companion measure had gotten stuck in the House, Tracy had offered to park the Senate version among other bills with little chance of being voted on this year.
But Senator Jeff Miller of Cleveland urged his fellow members of the State and Local Government Committee to act on the bill, and it was passed on a 5-to-2 vote.
Smoking controls killed in Tenn.
Once again, lawmakers snuff out bills to allow local bans
Once again, lawmakers snuff out bills to allow local bans
By Richard Locker
March 22, 2006
March 22, 2006
NASHVILLE — For the third straight year, Tennessee legislators on Tuesday killed for the year bills to restore local control over smoking in restaurants.
The House Agriculture Committee also voted 13-1 to kill a bill sponsored by the House’s only physician, Rep. Joey Hensley, to ban smoking only in restaurants employing minors.
Minutes earlier, the committee voted 8-6 to refer to a “study committee” a bill by Rep. Paul Stanley, R-Germantown, allowing cities and counties to regulate restaurant smoking. But Stanley said some study committees never meet and the move effectively killed the bill until the 2007 legislative session.
Stanley, Hensley, R-Hohenwald, and the lobbyist for the American Heart Association, Nathan James, blamed the annual defeat of the bills on the House leadership’s routing of all smoking-related bills to the agriculture committee instead of to committees dealing with health issues. Agriculture typically defers to the tobacco industry.
But Stanley said the powerful Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation kept quiet on the restaurant smoking bills while the Tennessee Restaurant Association led the opposition. “They’ve been the biggest obstacle. It would behoove the restaurant association to come up with some kind of compromise and deal with this issue” before the legislature does act, he said.
“I think this is an issue that unfairly singles out restaurants,” said restaurant association lobbyist Ronnie Hart. “If we need to do something, we need to do it in every public building and business in Tennessee.”
The Tennessee legislature removed the authority of city councils and county commissions to regulate smoking in 1994. That action was taken at the behest of the tobacco industry, but the restaurant industry has led the fight to keep the so-called local pre-emption law in effect.
The city councils of Germantown, Lakeland, Memphis and 40 other Tennessee city and county legislative bodies have passed resolutions urging repeal of the 1994 law to return the issue to local governments.
Defeat of the bills came on the same day the anti-smoking advocacy group CHART (Campaign for a Healthy and Responsible Tennessee) released a poll indicating 67 percent of state voters favor a 71-cent increase in the cigarette tax and that 83 percent are concerned about tobacco use among youths.
Hensley said his bill was an effort to “chip away” at the committee’s roadblock on any smoking regulation by tailoring it only to restaurants with workers under age 18, who have few part-time work alternatives. “As a physician, I’m aware of the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. It is harmful, and these bills should be in the health committees.”
Reaction in Memphis’ northeastern suburbs:
Lakeland Commissioner Clark Plunk was in a group that rode a bus to Nashville on Tuesday to lobby for the legislation, but arrived after the vote. Plunk said they were unaware of the 9 a.m. scheduled meeting time, but he said, “They knew we were coming and they voted early on us. There were some pretty mad people on the bus.”
Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald said, “We support (Germantown) in that effort. They’ve taken the lead role out of this area, but we certainly support the idea that the locals should have the ability to determine what’s good for its citizens.”
Arlington had not taken an official position, but Mayor Russell Wiseman, a nonsmoker, said he’d likely support a ban on smoking in public places.
Contact Nashville bureau chief Richard Locker at (615) 255-4923.
Reporters Shirley Downing and Jody Callahan contributed.
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Smoking ban bills hit House resistance
March 22, 2006
John Rodgers
John Rodgers
Two bills — one that would ban smoking in some restaurants and the other that would give local governments the authority to do so — were effectively killed Tuesday in a House panel’s votes.
“Who are we to tell somebody that owns his business that pays all of these taxes what he can do with his business,” Rep. Willie “Butch” Borchert (D-Camden) said regarding one of the proposals.
The House Agriculture Committee, a panel laden with lawmakers sensitive to tobacco interests, almost unanimously (13-1) shot down a bill that would prohibit smoking in restaurants that employ or serve people under 18.
“It’s basically protecting these young workers,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald), a doctor who said he is concerned about the health risks associated with second-hand smoke.
A second bill, which would restore local governments’ authority to ban smoking, was effectively killed as the agriculture panel referred the measure to a study committee to meet after the state Legislature adjourns for the session.
Although his bill wasn’t as summarily dismissed as Hensley’s, Rep. Paul Stanley (R-Memphis) said he thinks referring the bill to a study committee was a polite way to not kill the bill outright.
“Sometimes they don’t even meet,” Stanley said about the study committees, adding that he’ll try again next legislative session to pass his bill.
Until 1994, local governments, such as Metro, had the authority to ban smoking in public restaurants. That year, the state preemptively took away that right from local municipalities.
Stanley’s bill would have restored Metro Government’s right to prohibit smoking in public restaurants, which is a right the body has requested. The Metro Council has passed a resolution asking the state for that authority.
“It’s a good philosophy to say the best government is local government,” said Nathan James, lobbyist for the American Heart Association, which is in favor of “clean indoor air legislation.”
The Tennessee Restaurant Association (TRA) is actively lobbying against any bills that prohibit smoking in restaurants.
Ronnie Hart, the TRA’s president and chief executive officer, said this issue “unfairly singles out restaurants.”
“I don’t know why we want to just continue to beat on restaurants,” Hart said. “If we are going to do something, it needs to be across the board.”
Both Hensley and Stanley were upset that the bill was in the House Agriculture Committee to begin with, saying the measure had more to do with commerce and health than with agriculture.
House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington) assigns what bills are heard in which committees. Stanley and Hensley said that Naifeh’s sending the bill to the agriculture committee demonstrates his resistance.
“I think any smoking regulation in restaurants is something that the speaker opposes,” Hensley said. “So he sends them to the agriculture committee when they should go to the health care committee.”
Naifeh said bills involving tobacco have always gone to the House Agriculture Committee and always will.
Series of bills to ban restaurant smoking shot down in flames
By TOM HUMPHREY, tomhumphrey3@aol.com
March 22, 2006
March 22, 2006
NASHVILLE – Following a long but increasingly questioned tradition, the House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday resumed its routine of killing legislation to impose new restrictions on smoking in Tennessee.
In one case, a bill was killed politely, with the committee officially voting to study it until next year. In another case, sponsor Rep. Joey Hensley asked for an up-or-down vote. His call got 1 yes vote and 13 nays.
“They just don’t want to show the first soft spot in their armor against these smoking bills,” said Hensley, R-Hohenwald, a physician by profession. “It’s just the mindset of this committee.”
Members of the committee, the only panel in the House that has a Republican majority, are appointed by House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, who also decides which committee will hear each bill.
Naifeh has said he is simply being consistent. Since long before Naifeh became speaker 15 years ago, any bill dealing with smoking has been assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. The committee has routinely killed measures restricting smoking.
On the other hand, the committee, and the full Legislature, has approved a state “pre-emption” law that bans local governments from imposing their own restrictions on tobacco.
Rep. Paul Stanley, R-Germantown, brought to the committee Tuesday a bill that would repeal the pre-emption law, allowing each city council and county commission in the state to decide whether to impose restrictions, such as banning smoking in restaurants. Stanley, who described himself as an occasional smoker who prefers cigars, said the bill is a matter of granting more control to the local level of government.
Hensley’s bill would have prohibited smoking statewide in restaurants that employ persons under 18. He described it as a means of protecting youths from the effects of secondhand smoke and the temptation of smoking themselves.
Members of the committee criticized both measures at some length. Both bills have been actively opposed by the Tennessee Restaurant Association.
Rep. Willie “Butch” Borchert, D-Camden, said he is a non-smoker but formerly owned a restaurant and sympathizes with those running such a business while paying state and local taxes.
“Who are we to tell somebody who owns a business and pays all these taxes what he can do with his business?” said Borchert.
Rep. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, said he opposes such bills because “I like freedom.”
“Right now, any restaurant in this state has the freedom to put up a smoking or no-smoking sign and every customer has the freedom to go where he wants to go,” said Niceley. “Freedom is working well, so let’s leave it alone.”
Hensley insisted his bill “is not meant to prohibit smoking in all restaurants. It would just protect young people working in restaurants.”
On a motion by House Republican Leader Bill Dunn, D-Knoxville, the committee voted 8-6 to declare that Stanley’s bill would be studied until next year. Stanley said afterwards that he understood the move to be a polite way of scuttling the measure.
“In my six years (as a legislator), I’ve never seen a bill survive a study committee and come back intact,” said Stanley.
Hensley asked for a straightforward vote on his bill. Only Rep. Eric Swafford, R-Pikeville, supported it.
Voting no were committee Chairman Gene Davidson, D-Adams, and Reps. Straton Bone, D-Lebanon; Borchert; William Baird, R-Jacksboro; Chris Clem, R-Lookout Mountain; Chris Crider, R-Milan; Dunn; Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville; John Litz, D-Morristown; Steve McDaniel, R-Parkers Crossroads; Niceley; Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar; and John Mark Windle, D-Livingston.
Ronnie Hart, president of the Tennessee Restaurant Association, attended the committee meeting and said afterwards he agreed with critical comments from members on the two bills.
Hart said Hensley’s bill “unfairly singles out restaurants” rather than covering all public places and would effectively hurt young workers by discouraging restaurants from hiring them.
Shaw is House sponsor of a bill that would raise the state cigarette tax from 20 cents per pack to the national average of 91 cents per pack, using the projected $354 million in new revenue to improve health-care programs and reduce the sales tax on food.
Shaw said he voted against Hensley’s measure because he viewed it as “directed at closing down restaurants.” The tax increase, he said, would actually help reduce smoking by youths by driving up the price.
The tax bill has yet to face a vote in committees of either the House or Senate, where it is sponsored by Sen. Rosalind Kurita, D-Clarksville. Asked about his prospects in pushing the bill, Shaw said:
“I assume it will go to the Agriculture Committee. I’m going to hope for a resurrection – not just a funeral, but a resurrection.”
“Unless you are part of big tobacco, there is no reason to oppose this bill,” said Kurita.
Tom Humphrey may be reached at 615-242-7782.
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New Bill Proposes Restaurant Smoking Ban
3/14/2006
How would you feel about smoke-free restaurants? If some state lawmakers have it their way, the “no smoking” sign will be posted in every section of your favorite diner.
If you enjoy smoking after a meal, like Melody Boutwell, you may have to light up outside.
“I do smoke, but I don’t like smoking around children. So I typically, even in a restaurant, go outside to smoke,” Boutwell said.
A proposed bill would ban smoking in restaurants and possibly public buildings.
“The debate has increased over the years, and at this point, it is the most intense I’ve seen it in the last decade,” said Rep. Gene Davidson, D-Adams.
Davidson is the chairman of a committee overseeing this new bill.
He said if it becomes law, smokers wouldn’t have much of a choice.
Hardy Ross owns Rippy’s BBQ in downtown Nashville.
“We would respond, and we would comply,” Ross said.
His bar and restaurant may attract some smokers but Hardy said he won’t break the law.
“Smoking has been around in Tennessee for a longtime, but if they deem that’s what is necessary for public health, then we’ll certainly comply and make sure there is no smoking in this restaurant,” Ross said.
Whether or not the bill becomes law remains to be seen. Until then, smokers could enjoy a smoke where ever they are.
If the smoking ban bill passes through the committee, it will have to be approved in the House and the Senate before it becomes law.
Over a dozen states already have some type of smoking ban in place.
The states with the strictest rules are Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, California, New York and New Jersey.
All six states ban smoking in public buildings, workplaces, restaurants and bars.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, there is a ban on smoking in public places, but restaurant and bars are exempt.
