Ban effective Jan. 1; also applies to bars connected to eateries
Saturday, June 17, 2006
By Ed Anderson
and Robert Travis Scott - Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE -- All restaurants in the state will have to be smoke-free starting Jan. 1, even those with bars attached where patrons can now puff away.

Senators Friday night offered little resistance to a bill that imposes a ban on smoking in the workplace, voting 30-4 for a heavily amended Senate Bill 742 by Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia. The vote sends the bill to Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Her aides said she is expected to sign it.

When the bill left the Senate several weeks ago, it contained a provision allowing smoking in bars attached to restaurants, as long as they are enclosed by a ceiling-to-floor wall. But health advocates said employees working in the restaurants and patrons would still breathe second-hand smoke because most restaurants have only one ventilation system for the bar and restaurant.

The House late Thursday took that language out and required that the no-smoking ban apply to all parts of the restaurant, including the bar area.

The bill does not ban smoking in free-standing bars or in casinos or other areas where gambling is allowed. It also allows parishes and cities to enact stronger smoking regulations and laws but not ones weaker than the conditions outlined in the bill.

"This is a difficult task for the restaurants but it is a difficult problem for health," Marionneaux said.

He said he was surprised by the lopsided final vote. Sen. Edwin Murray, D-New Orleans, was the only New Orleans area senator to vote against the rewritten bill, and Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Mandeville, was absent for the vote.

"It was a situation whose time has come," Marionneaux said, pointing to a poll that showed 75 percent of the people in the state favor the smoking ban. "They (the restaurant industry officials who fought it) put up a valiant fight, but in the end they realized that public sentiment" was against smoking in public places.

Industry group unhappy

Critics of the bill said not only will it deter development of new restaurants, but will alter the dining experience for people who like to combine a meal with time enjoying a cigar or cigarette in the same establishment.

"It's definitely going to hurt our industry," said Jim Funk, chief executive officer of the Louisiana Restaurant Association.

In New Orleans in particular, with only 32 percent of the city's restaurants reopened since Hurricane Katrina, the nonsmoking law will deter redevelopment, Funk said.

"It's just not the time to be doing something like that," Funk said. "There is so much government interference in our business right now and this is just another example of it."

Funk said the law will be discriminatory against restaurants, especially "mom-and-pop" operations, because it leaves out free-standing bars, video poker establishments and casinos. "You can go next door to a bar and you can smoke and eat and drink," Funk said.

The city had 55,000 employees in the restaurant industry before Katrina and only 27,000 now, Funk said. While proponents of the bill argued that the measure would not stifle restaurant development, Funk disagreed.

"I guarantee you, you talk to some of the restaurants in the French Quarter and they have a completely different story," Funk said.

In brief final debate on the revised bill, Murray argued that some bars may now start serving food and encroach on restaurants' business or some restaurants may try to be licensed as bars that serve food.

But in urging the passage of the amended bill, Sen. Chris Ullo, D-Marrero, said, "The House has put this bill in the posture it should have been in before it left here."

Terri Broussard, spokeswoman for Tobacco-Free Louisiana, said the legislation will protect citizens. "This will be a big step in saving the 1,200 Louisiana lives that die annually from second-hand smoke," she said.

Other restrictions

Besides banning smoking in restaurants, the bill also bans smoking in eating areas of gambling establishments but allows it in the gambling areas. It also was changed to allow prisons to have smoking through Aug. 15, 2009, to give corrections officials a way to deal with inmates who are rewarded -- or punished -- based on smoking privileges.

Marionneaux's bill bans smoking in offices that employ more than one worker, all public buildings, malls, retail stores, indoor sports arenas, schools and a host of other public buildings. It would allow smoking in bars and gambling outlets, privately chartered limos, private homes, so-called "cigar bars" and any retail tobacco business.

It also would allow up to 50 percent of hotel rooms to be set aside for smokers, and permits smoking in convention centers used for Carnival balls and trade shows not open to the public that are staged by convenience stores and tobacco companies.

The bill requires employers to post no-smoking signs and remove all ashtrays from their work areas and buildings. Individuals caught smoking could get a $25 fine for a first offense, a $50 fine for a second violation and a $100 fine for subsequent offenses.

Employers who violate the law would be fined $100 for a first offense, $250 for a second offense and $500 for later violations.

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Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or (225) 342-5810.



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