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Posted on 02/19/2004 9:51:00 AM PST by Johnny Gage

Feb 19, 2004 7:31 am US/Central St. Paul (AP) Rep. Ron Latz said a bill that would ban smoking in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants, "catches Minnesota up with other states."

Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, and Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, planned a news conference Thursday to announce their measure that also would ban or restrict smoking in places of employment such as taxicabs, day-care centers and residential health care facilities.

The bill is strongly supported by the Minnesota Smoke-Free Coalition, a statewide organization consisting of large health care companies. "We have been pushing this since our founding in 1984," said Jeremy Hanson, public policy director.

"It's a personal right," he said. "People have the right to breathe in public without inhaling secondhand smoke. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your life to hold a job, whether you work in a bank or a bar."

Hanson said Health Department studies show smoking costs the state $2.6 billion annually in medical costs and lost productivity. And there are no proven economic disadvantages to going smoke-free, for a city, county, state or business, he said.

"Even in Duluth, which is the largest smoke-free city in the state, they have seen an increase in sales in restaurants and bars. That's based on unbiased sales tax receipts," Hanson said.

Latz said the bill would go into the legislative hopper by Friday afternoon. If it passes, most of the provisions would take effect July 1. A minor criminal penalty for violators would take effect Aug. 1.

"It's modeled on the New York law, which was a bipartisan effort," Latz said of the bill. "It catches Minnesota up with other states."

Minnesota in 1975 became the first state in the nation to restrict smoking in public buildings. While the rules have been tweaked and tightened over the years, Minnesota has fallen behind states such as California, New York, Delaware and Connecticut, which have banned smoking in bars and restaurants.

The hospitality industry has argued that bars and restaurants should be allowed to decide on their own whether to go smoke-free.

Tom Day, vice president of government affairs for Hospitality Minnesota, an umbrella group representing the state's restaurants, hotels and resorts, said 38 communities around the state have attempted to pass smoking bans in recent years but only four -- Duluth, Moose Lake, Cloquet and Olmsted County -- have succeeded.

"Before those cities went smoke-free, 25 percent of our restaurants had gone smoke-free," Day said. "The business community is moving in that direction, but we don't believe the government should tell us how to operate as it sees fit."

"Bloomberg-esque" policies coming to Minnesota

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