INDIANAPOLIS – A statewide smoking ban could become law this session if advocates accept a few exceptions, Senate President Pro Tem David Long said.
“The idea that somehow you can get 95 percent of what you’re seeking and it’s still not enough doesn’t work real well down here in a world where you have to sometimes compromise,” Long, R-Fort Wayne, said at a recent legislative preview luncheon. “You have to be realistic about what’s attainable and recognize that 95 percent of the loaf is a pretty darn big win.”
A statewide ban has passed the Indiana House in various forms numerous times but has consistently died in the Senate.
Last year, the version of the bill would have prohibited smoking in most public places, including offices, hotels, businesses, restaurants, bowling alleys and more. And it would have allowed local ordinances to be more restrictive than state law. The drive behind the legislation is to protect employees in public places from working in conditions that are hazardous to their health.
Several exemptions were added to the bill, including the state’s 13 casinos, two horse tracks and all bars and taverns serving only those 21 and older. Provisions were also made for private clubs and nursing homes.
In a Senate committee meeting, members defeated the bill partly because the American Cancer Society lobbied against the exemptions.
The chairman at the time did not allow committee members to offer amendments to remove the exemptions, saying it would doom the bill entirely.
Long said if a bill was presented to the legislature this year with those exemptions “and the advocates accepted the fact that they need to exist, it might get past the finish line.”
But the American Cancer Society isn’t backing down from seeking a comprehensive smoking ban covering all workers in public places.
“I find it interesting that our legislature and our administration prides itself in moving strong policy for Indiana, so it’s concerning for me that we won’t consider the best we can get,” said Amanda Estridge, Indiana government relations manager for the American Cancer Society.
“Starting out saying we will only consider a bill with exemptions is saying some workers are more important than others.”
She said last year’s bill would have created one of the weakest laws in the U.S. – leaving out at least 30,000 employees in casinos and bars. Estridge also said a majority of committee members wanted to strengthen the bill but were not allowed to offer amendments. She said Senate leadership has never allowed an up-or-down vote on an exemption-free smoking ban so they don’t know whether it would pass.
“We’re not saying all or nothing. We’re saying let’s try to get the strongest law that we can,” she said. “I would like to see the legislative process followed through.”
