Posted on 02/18/2004 7:53:00 AM PST by SheLion
BOSTON -- The push for a statewide smoking ban hit a snag in the state Legislature yesterday when a senator successfully blocked the formation of a committee charged with drafting a compromise version of the legislation.
Late last year, the Senate and House of Representatives both passed slightly different versions of a statewide ban on smoking in the workplace.
Last week, House leaders appointed several state representatives who will meet behind closed doors with their Senate counterparts to hash out the differences between the two bills.
The Senate was poised to name three senators to serve on that "conference committee" yesterday, until state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, objected to the move. Because the motion was made in an informal session, instead of a formal session, a single senator's objection was enough to block the move.
Tarr, who had voted in favor of the ban last year, did not return a telephone call seeking comment yesterday.
However, state Sen. Richard Moore, D-Uxbridge, attributed the "parliamentary maneuver" to Senate Minority Leader Brian Lees, an outspoken critic of the bill.
"The real culprit is Sen. Lees," said Moore, one of three senators who would serve on the conference committee. "He has used every possible opportunity to delay consideration of this bill."
Moore, Senate chairman of the Health Care Committee, said the Senate could approve the creation of the committee during its next formal session, a week from tomorrow.
The House approved the ban by a vote of 126 to 25 in October. The Senate approved its version about a month later. Both bills would ban smoking in virtually all public buildings, including restaurants and bars as of July 5, 2004.
Smoking would be permitted, however, in private clubs, certain areas of nursing homes, hotels and motels, "smoking bars" and retail tobacco stores. Religious ceremonies and performers in theatrical productions also would be exempt from the ban.
Violating the ban would be punishable by a $100 fine for a first offense, $200 for second offense and $300 for a third or subsequent offense.
More than 90 cities and towns, including Boston and Framingham, already have banned smoking in the workplace.
Meanwhile, a total of 217 of the state's 351 cities and towns have passed local measures either banning or restricting smoking in bars and restaurants. Moore and state Rep. Peter Koutoujian, a Waltham Democrat who serves as House chairman of the Health Care Committee, both said the two bills are virtually identical.
"Nothing substantive. It's mostly semantics," Koutoujian said. Moore said the conference committee, which also would include state Sen. Susan Fargo, D-Lincoln, state Rep. Rachel Kaprielian, D-Watertown, and a Republican member of both the House and Senate, should be able to complete its work in a single day.
"I don't think there's anything to hold us up," he said. Koutoujian and Moore hope the compromise bill will reach the floors of the House and Senate by late March. "It's certainly historic for Massachusetts, but (many) (He calls "5 states" MANY?!) other states already have done this," Koutoujian said. "I think this state is ready for it."
I know it! One fly in the anti's ointment. LOL!
That's what "I" was wondering. What's a difference between a "private club," and a "smoking bar?" No food??? I don't understand the spin "they" are putting on this.
Where ARE the smoking bars???
This is an interesting exception. I wonder how they define "theatrical productions".
Exactly what I was thinking. Now to get the ACLU to defend our little piece of "performance art". Not to mention Federal Funding from the NEA.
Why do Liberals have such disdain for property rights?
If I want to open a restaurant where every last person in there must be in posseision of a lit cigarette at all times and have a rabid screamer monkey on their shoulder, that's my right. Oh, I'll probably go out of business, but it's my choice and it shouldn't have to pass P.C. muster with some idiot liberal.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
It's not just the state of Massachusetts. There is federal legislation under consideration right now that would ban any kind of cigarette purchases by mail order.
Carolyn
This has gotten WAY out of hand!
Yes, it has. And there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it. As Claire Wolfe says, "It's too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the b#$%^&*s."
Carolyn
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