Smoking Ban Bills Move In Different Directions

State lawmakers continue to argue over a smoking ban in workplaces.

Governor Phil Bredesen wants smoking banned in all workplaces. That bill continued to idle in a key Senate committee yesterday, while a similar bill from Shelbyville Senator Jim Tracy eased toward the Senate floor.

Currently, Tracy’s bill bans smoking in all publicly-owned buildings, like city and county buildings. But Tracy says he’s hoping some exemptions will get added to the bill on the Senate floor.

“…such as tobacco shops, where you buy the tobacco, 21 years of age, and older venues, small businesses where there are three and under employees, those kinds of exemptions.”

The governor’s bill is far more sweeping, but sponsor Roy Herron, deferred a vote on it until next week.

In other action, a bill to allow the AT&T company to obtain a statewide franchise to provide video cable service was amended but failed to come to a vote. That means a resolution on the fight between AT&T and the current cablecasters was put off for at least a week.

WEB EXTRA:

Tracy’s newly enabled bill is SB 1325/HB 1851 Bone/Baird. It passed in Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday 6-0-3, that is, with three persons Present Not Voting.

In the House the bill is still lodged in the tobacco-friendly Agriculture Committee. The House sponsors are Agriculture Committee Chair Stratton Bond, a Democrat, and Rep. William Baird of Jacksboro, a Republican.

Herron deferred SB 2255, the administration bill called “the Tennessee Smokefree Air Law of 2007.” In the Senate the bill is deferred to a Senate Commerce meeting next week, and the House companion, HB 2336, sponsored by House Majority Leader Gary Odom, is still in House Agriculture.

Advocates for a strict no-smoking policy for all workplaces were not happy with the action of the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday.

In a news release, the Campaign for a Healthy and Responsible Tennessee said its Smoke-Free Tennessee Coalition is disappointed

“…the Senate Commerce Committee’s action on SB 1325 today would only vote to protect government employees and not all Tennesseans from the deadly effects of secondhand smoke.”

CHART had previously noted the bill has a majority of the Senate and of the House as co-sponsors to the more-sweeping bill. That didn’t equate, however, to a majority in the Senate Commerce and House Agriculture Committees. The advocates complained:

“When 73% of Tennesseans and more than half of the General Assembly voice their support for a comprehensive smoke-free workplace law, you expect Senate Commerce Committee members to respond and vote with that majority.”