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Assembly committee passes smoking ban

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by Kevin Bargnes

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The statewide smoking ban passed an Assembly committee by a bipartisan vote of 6-3 Tuesday just hours prior to a Madison visit from seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong in support of the legislation.

Four Democrats and two Republicans voted to move the bill to the Assembly floor. If passed, it would ban smoking in all Wisconsin workplaces, including bars, restaurants and taverns. A nearly identical statue is already in effect in Madison.

“Employees have the right to work in a healthy environment,” said Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, who voted in favor of the bill. “Employees shouldn’t be forced to inhale secondhand smoke, which has been shown to be highly carcinogenic.”

An amendment to the bill that would give taverns until 2011 to go smoke-free was shot down in committee. Black said doing so would have prolonged the public health problem.

“While people have the right to smoke cigarettes, they don’t have the right to force other people to breathe their secondhand smoke,” he said.

Opponents of the bill include Pete Madland, president of the Tavern League of Wisconsin.

“Individual businesses should be able to run their businesses the way they see fit,” Madland said. “We have evidence in other states and countries that when a smoking ban takes place the impact on the bars is devastating.”

Madland said passing the bill would be “toying” with people’s retirements.

“These small tavern owners aren’t people who have 401Ks and nice retirement programs — their business is their retirement,” he said.

The bill is now eligible to be voted on by the whole of the Assembly. However, this session ends next week, meaning if it doesn’t get a vote by then it will have to start from scratch next session.

John Murray, spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said Huebsch is unsure as to when or if the smoking ban will make it on the schedule before next week. The speaker has no position on the bill, according to Murray.

Black is hopeful that the bill will pass this session, citing similar bills recently passed in Illinois and Minnesota.

“I think it’s possible,” he said. “There’s a lot of pressure from citizens to get this passed, and the fact that the neighboring states have all adopted it or are in the process of adopting it puts additional pressure on the Legislature.”

On the Senate side, a version of the bill passed out of committee in February. Senate Minority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, is working on a compromise.

“He has been working with proponents and opponents to try and work out a compromise that could pass the Senate,” said Decker spokesperson Carrie Lynch. “The bill as it stands right now doesn’t have the votes to pass the Senate.”

Murray said the final day of session will be March 13.

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Anonymous (March 5, 2008 @ 5:33pm):

Where is Bill Hannegan and his pro-smoking propaganda? This article must not have come up in his nexis search this morning. If he does manage to wander in here, please ignore his garbage. He's simply an angry man, who used to have a bar in St. Louis, and thinks the world and the government are out to get him.

Bill Hannegan (March 5, 2008 @ 11:12pm):

I am just trying to give Wisconsin business owners and lawmakers full information on this issue. I have seen the American Cancer Society push thru a smoking ban in Illinois with very bad information. My family owns a bar in Door County, so I don't want to see this happen again in Wisconsin.

Anonymous (March 6, 2008 @ 3:57am):

Well, well, well, if it isn't yet another anti trying to paint Bill Hannegan as a liar. As someone who 100% supports his position and is a non-smoking libertarian, your side should be very ashamed of how you've gotten away with spinning lies about SHS for too many years already, when it would be in the best interest of the Wisconsin Legislature and Senate to vote down the proposed statewide ban.

Laws should be based on TRUE science, not biased junk science studies released by anti-smoking groups. Why else did a federal judge decide to throw out a 1993 EPA classification of SHS as a class A carcinogen in 1998, and why the OSHA ruled that SHS was thousands of times safer than permissible OSHA indoor air standards?

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