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I am not sure what happened, but the smoking ban seems to have collapsed in the Iowa House.
Todd Dorman has the details...
If a smoking ban passes and doesn't include restaurants and bars then what is the point of a smoking ban at all?The Iowa House voted this morning to exempt bars and restaurants that hold state liquor licenses from the controversial bill banning smoking in public places statewide. An amendment wedging those exemptions into the ban bill was approved 51-44. The House then sent the bill back to the Senate.
Essentially, under the new version of the ban, if you serve drinks, you can allow smoking at designated times, likely at night, when only patrons 21 and older are admitted. So no puffing around the kids. Along with bars and eateries, smokers would be allowed to light up under those rules on casino gaming floors, in clubs and in bars at hotels or motels.
Smoking would still be banned in scores of other public venues, but a bar exemption drives a Mack truck-sized hole in a bill that left the Senate banning smoking in darn near every nook and cranny of the state.
2 comments:
The point? Maybe that owners of private establishments should be able to decide for themselves whether to allow the use of a legal product?
There is no principled reason why a bar run by the American Legion, or casino should be able to allow smoking but a bar run by a private owner shouldn't.
The bill designates a bar as anywhere that serves alcohol. That means places such as Applebees and pretty much every sit down restaurant would be able to get around the smoking ban. So what's the point of having a ban?
I agree that maybe there could an exemptions for bars, bowling alleys, and casinos and it isn't fair for some bars and casinos to have an exemption while others don't.
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