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Smoking ban bill moves forward, expected on governor's desk today Friday, Apr 7, 2006 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - After a rollercoaster ride through the House on Thursday, a bill that would ban smoking in the workplace passed the chamber and headed to the Senate for final approval. The Senate was expected to adopt a House amendment to Senate Bill 19 today - sponsors initially dreaded the change but later accepted it to advance the measure - and send the bill to the governor's desk, sponsoring Sen. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, said. "Obviously I'm ecstatic with the fact that we've passed a clean air bill in Arkansas." Gov. Mike Huckabee said Thursday after the House passed his proposal, 63-32. "This is a historic moment for us. It's a great move for Arkansas, a move forward for the health of our people." The House also approved legislation that would ban smoking in vehicles carrying a child in a car seat. House Bill 1046, by Rep. Bob Mathis, D-Hot Springs, also goes to the Senate. The bill to ban smoking in the workplace appeared in trouble early Thursday when Mathis proposed what House sponsor of the measure, Rep. Sid Rosenbaum, R-Little Rock, initially described as "a hostile amendment" and "a poison pill." Mathis' amendment would exempt motels with fewer than 25 rooms from the smoking ban. The original bill required all hotels and motels to have at least 20 percent of their rooms smoke free. Mathis said he was only trying to help people in his district who run small motels with fewer than 25 rooms. The House, after some debate, adopted the amendment and sent the bill back to the House Rules Committee, which had endorsed the original legislation Wednesday. Mathis defended the change before the committee, saying that 20-30 motels in Hot Springs have fewer than 25 rooms. It would be much more burdensome for smaller motels to leave 20 percent of rooms smoke free than for larger chains with many more rooms, he said. "To me, this is just protecting small businesses," Mathis said, Rosenbaum told the committee that after considering how the bill would affect the smaller, family-owned motels, he agreed to support Mathis' amendment. "This is a change we can live with," Rosenbaum told the committee. He said later that his critical comments during the House session about Mathis' amendment were aimed at how the change was proposed, not the substance of the proposal. "I support small business," he said. Huckabee also decried Mathis' amendment initially. "He supports the bill strongly. He doesn't support the underhanded manner in which attempts are being made to kill it," Huckabee spokesman Alice Stewart said just before the bill passed the House. Sen. Paul Miller, D-Melbourne, a co-sponsor of SB 19, urged the House committee to endorse the amended bill, saying any more delays could prevent the legislation from being approved and signed by the governor. "If we delay this one day, it's dead in the water," Miller said. It passed the committee on a voice vote. Steele said afterward that he didn't particularly like Mathis' amendment and would have preferred that all motels meet the 20 percent smoke-free room requirement. "I'm not favorable to the amendment but I respect the wishes of the House, which overwhelmingly passed it," Steele said. "I think it's still a good bill with the amendment." Before the full House, Rosenbaum said banning smoking in the workplace would save 200 to 400 lives annually. "I believe certainly this is what the people of Arkansas want," he said. Rep. Jay Bradford, D-White Hall, failed to pass a smoking ban during three terms in the House and several terms in the Senate. "This is a crowning effort for me," Bradford said after the House approved the measure, 63-32. The ban would cover all indoor workplaces except for private homes not used for day care or any health care activity, designated hotel "smoking rooms" and small businesses with fewer than three employees. All state-licensed restaurants and bars that have employees and cater to customers over 21 years old also would be exempt from the new regulations if secondhand smoke does not filter into areas where smoking is banned. |
