(AP) – The state Senate approved a statewide ban on smoking in all workplaces Wednesday, edging Wisconsin closer to prohibiting smoking in bars, restaurants and hotel rooms.
The Senate approved the measure 25-8 after more than four hours of debate. The Assembly immediately took up the bill. Debate in that house was expected to last for hours as well.
Twenty-five other states already have gone smoke-free. But Wisconsin’s powerful Tavern League has opposed attempts to impose a similar prohibition here, fearing bars would lose too many smoking customers and go out of business.
Nearly 40 local governments have passed their own anti-smoking ordinances, creating a patchwork of regulations that the Tavern League complained pit nonsmoking bars against smoking bars.
The statewide political dynamics changed dramatically when Democrats took control of the Legislature in last November’s elections. Assuming a ban was now inevitable, the tavern lobby and anti-smoking groups hammered out compromise legislation.
Under the bill, the ban would take effect in July 2010. Smokers who violate it would face fines of up to $250. Bar owners who don’t try to stop smokers would first get a warning and then a $100 fine. Local governments couldn’t pass any regulations stricter than the state ban.
Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, the chief author of the bill, said the prohibition creates fair competition throughout the state and would save both lives and taxpayer dollars on health care expenses. A state Department of Health Services fiscal estimate attached to the bill said the measure would save about $754,000 in Medicaid expenses annually, with savings likely to grow over time.
“I don’t have to tell you about the health effects of smoking,” Risser told the Senate. “We all know it. It is the most preventable cause of illness in the state.”
Senate Republicans – and some Democrats – tried to amend the bill to carve out exemptions, ranging from nursing homes to private country clubs and Middle Eastern restaurants where patrons smoke water pipes. The most contentious amendment was a proposal from Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, that would have allowed hotels to permit smoking in up to 15 percent of their rooms.
Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, supported the idea, saying he was afraid travelers would pass through Wisconsin for hotels in Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. Those states all have statewide smoking bans but allow smoking in a percentage hotel rooms.
But Risser and Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, warned the amendments would upset the fragile compromise between the Tavern League and anti-smoking groups.
“It’s not a tough thing to get off the bar stool and step outside and smoke,” said Erpenbach, himself a smoker.
None of the amendments survived.
Early debate in the Assembly was heated, with Republicans bellowing the ban would drive small businesses under.
“I don’t know what you told your mom-and-pop businesses, but I told them I’d leave them alone,” said Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford. “Let them do their business as they see fit.”
