Some jurisdictions eyeing smoke ban rollbacks
Pub Date: 9/1/2005
While attempts to enact new smoking bans continue to make headlines, lately a few jurisdictions, such as Hennepin County in Minnesota and the city of Madison, Wis., are apparently considering new rollbacks and exemptions.
In the nation's capital, meanwhile, the mayor is saying he favors a ban with a tavern exemption.
In Hennepin County, Minnesota's most populous, county commissioners are studying whether to now exempt traditional taverns from the blanket ban enacted just four months ago.
Neighboring Ramsey county had also passed a ban but it exempted taverns. Licensees in Hennepin County have testified they are being crushed by the exodus of their customers to nearby exempted establishments.
Political observers there reported some vote shifting on the commission, and that a new majority may favor exempting licensed premises with at least 50 percent of their income derived from sales of adult beverage. The total ban originally passed 5-2.
The commission voted to undertake an economic impact study that is expected to be rendered in about 30 days before deciding on whether to exempt bars.
One commissioner, Mike Opat, who voted in favor of the original total ban, has been quoted in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as saying he believes now the ban went too far and is supporting exemptions as a way to "decrease the pain" of licensees.
Another commissioner who also voted for the ban, Peter McLaughlin, has been characterized as a "swing vote" and voted for the impact study, acknowledging that tavern owners are "bleeding." McLaughlin is also campaigning for the mayor's office.
Commissioner Gail Dorfman, who led the smoking ban campaign, said tavern owners had successfully shifted the crux of the debate from an issue of health to one of economic damage.
Over 100 supporters of exemptions appeared at the meeting waving signs. Several testified the ban has produced business revenue declines of 35 percent, significant job losses, an inability to pay taxes and make house payments.
"It's a slow death," John Alexander told the Star-Tribune. He operates Johnny A's sports bar in Minneapolis.
In Madison, city council member Lauren Cnare called that city's total ban "the vampire of ordinances. It keeps coming back to life. It's a really, really ugly issue," she told the Wisconsin State Journal.
That city's law went into effect July 1 and a vote to rescind it narrowly failed July 5. Now, however, Councilman Santiago Rosas, who voted in favor of the original ban and abstained on the vote to repeal, said he will join five other commissioners who are backing rescinding the ordinance in a new vote.
The Journal reported Rosas as saying, "I now believe that the council was a bit over zealous."
Another commissioner, Judy Compton, who was absent during the vote to rescind, has publicly declared she favors repeal. Still another, Isadore Knox Jr., said he favors a compromise incorporating specially ventilated smoking areas.
Some council members who support revisiting the ban are predicting a new vote within two to four months and have been out visiting licensed premises for first-hand information. They say licensees have reported income declines of 30 to 60 percent.
A staunch supporter of the ban, Cnare said her constituents say they don't want smoking in bars, but then admitted, according to the Journal, neither are they flocking to the smoke-free establishments and that a compromise could be a reasonable solution.
The city's mayor, Dave Cieslewicz, says he is concerned when businesses are struggling, but said more time should be allowed for patrons and business owners to adjust.
Meanwhile in Washington D.C., mayor Anthony Williams, who has been blowing hot and cold on a municipal smoking ban, came out Aug. 3 with a position that is definitively lukewarm.
According to the Washington Examiner, he has now voiced "vague support" for a bill that would ban smoking in some places, but would exempt others from a ban.
According to the daily newspaper, Williams now says he wants legislation that includes exemptions for bars and "facilities of certain kinds." Such a bill must balance the freedom of choice for businesses and patrons against purported health benefits of eliminating secondhand smoke, he said.
Three different bills are pending: one a total ban, one with exemptions and a third with incentives for smoke-free businesses.
Finally, in a proposal that makes advocates of total smoking bans appear moderate, a New Jersey legislator, John McKeon (D-Essex), is advancing a bill that would make smoking in cars an offense punishable by a $250 fine.
Source: The ABL Leader, Sept., 2005, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.