Illinois Poised To Become A Smoke-Free State

CBS 2 CHICAGO ^ | 01 MAY 2007 | AP

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Legislation Passed By State House And Senate, Now Goes To Governor's Desk

(CBS) SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Get ready to snuff out those cigarettes. Illinois lawmakers have voted to ban smoking in bars, restaurants and other public workplaces. Illinois is one signature away from becoming a smoke-free state, and the governor already says he is ready to sign a statewide ban into law.

The legislation passed the House 73-42 Tuesday and now goes to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who supports the ban "enthusiastically." If he signs the measure, the smoking restrictions would take effect Jan. 1 and make Illinois the 19th state the country to impose such a ban.

As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, the margin of approval kills the possibility for a veto.

The statewide ban is meant to replace a patchwork of local laws. As CBS 2’s Mike Parker reports, Chicago bars were expecting a municipal smoking ban to take effect soon, but for suburban bars and restaurants, like Merrionette Park's 115 Bourbon Street, long operating under local ordinances that have allowed smoking, there was no such threat until now.

Critics complain that the current arrangement hurts business in cities with smoking bans, because smokers visit neighboring towns without such bans when they want to go out for dinner or a drink.

Smoking opponents portrayed the measure as a matter of public safety, little different from requiring restaurants to follow fire codes. Customers and the staff who serve them should not be exposed to dangerous smoke, they argued.

Experts say second-hand smoke kills about 2,900 people in Illinois every year.

"There's no doubt the actions of smokers are harming non-smokers," said the sponsor, Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Chicago.

Opponents argued the state is overstepping its authority by telling every Illinois business how it must operate.

Customers should be allowed to vote with their dollars and stay away from businesses that permit smoking if that's what they want to do, critics say. If smoking must be regulated, it should be done by individual cities.

"That's local control. That's the way government works best," said Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro.

"People go into bars, they expect smoke, they expect people smoking,” said smoker Jeff Hooker.

"They're nervous, they're watching the game, they want to smoke,” said bar owner Nick DiNovo.

The new law would ban smoking in every public place, every place of employment, every college dormitory, and even in for-profit private clubs like cigar bars, as well as within 15 feet of entrances to public facilities.

Police officers who smoke won't be able to do it in their squad cars – all government vehicles are off limits. And smoking will be banned in every riverboat casino in the state. The new law will also put an end to smoking exotic tobaccos in water pipes in the trendy new hookah bars and cafes unless 80 percent of their gross revenue is from selling tobacco.

"The lion's share of our sales come from the sale of tobacco and the smoking of pipes on the premises,” said Mark Heinze of Sigara Café and Lounge. “I would anticipate maybe no change."

The bill passed the state Senate last month and passed out of the House Environmental Health Committee last week.

If signed by Blagojevich, the ban would take effect Jan. 1, 2008. That would supersede a law currently in place in Chicago that would give bars and nightclubs until July 1, 2008, to implement a smoking ban.

The City of Chicago has banned smoking in all other indoor public places, and many other municipalities in Illinois have also instituted smoking bans.

The reality is that non-smokers now vastly outnumber smokers, with political clout to match. But while the tide of public opinion has turned strongly against smoking, the issue remains hotly debated.

Gov. Blagojevich said he expects to sign the bill into law. Blagojevich said in Chicago on Tuesday that he still needs to see the bill, but that it sounds to him like something he would "enthusiastically" sign.

Blagojevich made his comments at a rare news conference called to highlight the endorsement by the American Association of Retired Persons of the governor's proposal to provide state subsidies for health insurance.

The motivation for the bill is to protect people from secondhand smoke in the workplace, advocates say.

Working eight hours in a smoky bar or restaurant is the equivalent of smoking 16 cigarettes, the American Cancer Society says. It estimates secondhand smoke contributes to the deaths of 2,900 Illinoisans a year -- about eight a day.

When the bill passed the state Senate, opponents said decisions about smoking bans should be left to city and county officials. Forty-four Illinois communities have approved restrictions on smoking in public places, according to the Cancer Society.

"They're the ones who are best equipped in order to make this decision," said Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon.

But some business owners object to letting each city make the decision. Bars and restaurants covered by bans are put at a disadvantage against their competitors just outside city limits, they argue.

An association representing bars and other businesses that serve alcohol argued that a smoking ban would be devastating to their bottom-line, especially for small businesses.

"What you're going to have left is a homogenous TGI Friday entertainment industry, because they're the ones with deep pockets. Mom-and-pop places, there's no way they can withstand this," said Steve Riedl, executive director of the Illinois Licensed Beverage Association.

Riedl said bars in Springfield and other cities with smoking bans have seen business drop sharply.

In the Senate version, people violating the ban could be fined $100 to $250. Businesses that allow violations could be fined $250 a day.

CBS 2's Mike Flannery, Mike Parker and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

BOHICA

[Gay State Conservative]

I’m a non-smoker (and never have smoked) but I’m so nauseated by this I would hope that folks in IL would engage in massive “civil disobedience” to overwhelm police throughout the state and clog the state’s courts.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Big Brother, Nanny State, Grant Junky, Bogus Study, Junk Science, Social Engineering, Sheeple Control, Health Nazi Ping!!!

To be added to or deleted from this ping list, please send me a private message below.

To request that I stop using these gay html colors and fonts, please send me a private message below.

____________________________________________________________________

Constitution of the Left Wing Nanny State of Liberals:

Picture courtesy of unixfox. All rights reserved. Copyright MMVII. Any use of the pictures descriptions or accounts of this ping without the express written consent of unixfox, Eric Blair, or Major League Baseball is strictly prohibited. Some restrictions apply. Ping not available in all states. For erections lasting longer than four hours, call the Guiness Book of World Records. Use only as directed.

Preamble:

We the People Sheeple of the United States Nanny State, in Order to form a more perfect Union Socialist Utopia, establish Justice Socially engineer a country of non smoking, physically fit, tea totallers, insure domestic Tranquility Smoking bans in bars, limits on unhealthy food and social drinking, provide for the common defense Universal Healthcare, promote the general Welfare health of the population whether they like it or not, in order to save above mentioned Universal Healthcare entitlement program from bankruptcy, and secure the Blessings of Liberty Dependency to ourselves progressive liberals and our Posterity Hitler Youth who we brainwash through public school education, do ordain decree and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Nanny State of Liberals.

[Madame Dufarge]

lawmakers have voted to ban smoking in bars, restaurants and other public workplaces.

The Big Lie, told often enough.......

It's as if dog-training techniques were being used on the American public and working surprisingly well.

Constant repetition, reward for approved behavior (being on the winning side for once) and so on.

[spectre]

Here's what ex Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas is so proud of:

Huckabee heralds in smoke-free law 

Arkansas News Bureau, 2006-07-22 Author: Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau Intro:

"The state's workplace smoking ban went into effect Friday, with Gov. Huckabee ushering in the law with a call for Arkansans to dine out.

"The best way to celebrate this would be to be able to report a dramatic increase in restaurant profits," Huckabee said of the law, which bans smoking in workplaces, including restaurants.

The law, adopted in an April special session, makes limited exceptions for establishments that admits only patrons 21 or older and for small businesses. Any other place of business "that has a ceiling, a floors, and walls" should be smoke free, said Dr. Joe Thompson, the state's chief health officer."

sw

[Eric Blair 2084]

Don’t even waste your breath with the Huckster. He’s irrelevant as a POTUS candidate. He doesn’t need to be swift boated. He swift boated himself by being a tool on a variety of issues.

[DumpsterDiver]

Huckabee said of the law, which bans smoking in workplaces, including restaurants.
The law, adopted in an April special session, makes limited exceptions for establishments that admits only patrons 21 or older and for small businesses.

Why the exceptions? Doesn't Huckabee doesn't care about those employees' lungs? Are they second-class citizens, or something?

< /sarc >

[beckysueb]

The Democrat gov of Tennessee has proposed Tennessee become a smoke free state, too. We have a Republican majority so hopefully it won’t pass.

[spectre]

Eric, I PRAY you are right and the Huckster starts looking for a real job soon. Maybe back to Preaching.

Diver..it's mostly bars that can still accomodate smokers. But some local chain Restaurants are getting around it by adding "outside porches" for the evil smokers...

My husband has to take Nicorette to work..it helps :)

sw

[Eric Blair 2084]

Stop the lies and social engineering and just ban tobacco already! The tobacco crop already did it's job and helped build America. It's no longer useful (except as a sin tax crop for Liberals)

The hypocrisy, bogus studies and outright lies are anathema to a free country. THE REAL GOAL OF THESE SMOKING BANS IS TO REDUCE SMOKING RATES. PERIOD, END OF STORY.

"What most people really object to when they object to a free market is that it is so hard for them to shape it to their own will. The market gives people what the people want instead of what other people think they ought to want. At the bottom of many criticisms of the market economy is really lack of belief in freedom itself. The essence of political freedom is the absence of coercion of one man by his fellow men. The fundamental danger to political freedom is the concentration of power. The existence of a large measure of power in the hands of a relatively few individuals enables them to use it to coerce their fellow men. Preservation of freedom requires either the elimination of power where that is possible, or its dispersal where it cannot be eliminated. It essentially requires a system of checks and balances, like that explicitly incorporated in our Constitution..."

-- Milton Friedman, The New Liberal's Creed: Individual Freedom, Preserving Dissent Are Ultimate Goals," May 18, 1961

Part time state legislators/dry cleaners and selfish citizens who vote for this stuff are clueless as to what the real agenda is. Of course, if they read Free Republic, now they know. If they still want to go along with it at least they are making an informed decision.

[DumpsterDiver]

The hypocrisy behind these bans, and the exceptions to the bans, annoy the hell out of me!

My husband has to take Nicorette to work..it helps :)

If I still worked I'd be chewing nicotine gum and then sticking it on the chairs of the people whose habits I find offensive.

(I am sooo cheerful, ain't I?)

[spectre]

LOL.. Can't smoke at work (not even outside)..Won't smoke in his car so..he's a abit "edgy" when he first comes home..:)

sw

[Eric Blair 2084]

That’s the name of the game. Make smokers’ lives miserable and they will give in to the Leviathan State and just quit already. Limit where they can smoke, jack up the price, turn their fellow citizens against them using propaganda. It’s all carefully planned. There is no accident.

[gonzo]

"...Experts say second-hand smoke kills about 2,900 people in Illinois every year...

No, no, that's wrong - it's 2,900,000 people! Can't these maroons get it straight yet?

Sigh ... Henry Waxman D-Fornicalia, of snort-nose fame, concluded a six year study a while back that was to define exactly how many thousands of people die annualy from second-hand smoke.

Unfortunately, Hennys' study couldn't find anybody that died from second-hand smoke - not one single person! And the beat-down goes on .............. FRegards

[Eric Blair 2084]

Wait till you see the piece I have coming out next week. Are you on my ping list? You can’t miss this one.

It’s actually 29,000,000 people per day...in Rhode Island alone. Hell, while we’re making up numbers why stop at 2,900 or a kajillion people?

They can’t name 3.

[spectre]

They really don't want people to quit. The Tobacco tax is a big source of revenue.

"Governor Beebe (D) and his liberal friend Gene Shelby (D-Hot Springs) are planning to raise the cigarette excise tax by $0.50, from its current rate of $0.59, to help advance their plan for a new state health program.

Arkansas, which currently has the 34th lowest cigarette tax, would surpass the $1.00 national average as a result of this regressive tax increase. This would amount to an exorbitant 85% tax increase.

Arkansas does not need to increase taxes at a time when lawmakers have a spending problem and not a revenue problem".

Doesn't matter how many emails I send, it will pass. AR, has the fastest growing Illegal population in the Nation & depends on this revenue to support the Illegals health care.

sw

[Eric Blair 2084]

This is a perfect example of why Democracy is flawed. A large state like Illinois is about to impose egalitarian Socialism on the population in the name of the greater good.

The sheeple on the largest right wing, free market, conservative forum in America don’t seem to care. I haven’t been to Chicago since 1992. I was too sick with the flu on the business trip to go to a bar.

Keep playing my vice is better than your vice folks. You’re next. Do you like beer? Big Macs? The left wing liberals will straighten you out next. Their Medicaid and Medicare and total Universal Health Care expenses are at risk.

Open Memo: If you want to remain stuck on stupid, keep thinking that somebody has actually dropped dead from being in a bar where people were smoking or that they care that people are annoyed by the smell of smoke. That’s why the anti tobacco people are spending billions of RWJF money for a social engineering experiment to coerce people to quit.

Right.

[elkfersupper]

The fact that your elected representatives are Republican is no help on this particular issue.

Left and Right meet at tyranny on this subject.

[GOP_Lady]

As you know, I live in Ohio, where full enforcement of the smoking ban took effect yesterday. I heard an ad on the radio in my car brought to us by some agency of the Ohio Department of Health. It basically went, “The difference in a restaurant/bar before the Ohio Smoke Free Law (noise) and the difference after (noise). See, there’s no difference, so go out...”

Hey, I know where I’m not wanted, so I won’t go. I don’t go to bars, but why I go when you’re going to be there for a while and can’t stay indoors to have a cigarette and spend more money for adult beverages on top of it.

Makes me wonder why they’re playing these commercials. I’m so looking forward to going to Vegas Sunday where I can sit inside a casino, have a cigarette, and get free champagne (with a strawberry, of course), tea, water, etc.

[GOP_Lady]

One lady with whom I work (and who voted for the Ohio Smoke Free Issue) thought that the issue she voted on was nationwide. God help us when these types of people vote is all I can say. Gees.