As Gov. Steve Beshear continues his crusade for a statewide smoking ban in restaurants and other public places, Jessamine lawmakers are not overly supportive of the governor’s stance.
“I don’t think it will pass; I don’t think they have the votes, from what I’ve been told by the lobbyists,” state Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville, said. “I’m really not for it. I think it (should) be left up to each individual community to decide what kind of smoking bans they want in place. I’m not too much on Frankfort telling Nicholasville what they’ve got to do.”
But last Thursday, Beshear urged state legislators to act quickly on the measure, according to The Associated Press.
“I predict to you that years from now people will be wondering why we waited so long," Beshear said during a Capitol rally in support of legislation intended to protect Kentuckians from secondhand smoke.
Like Damron, state Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, doesn’t see the issue coming to a vote in the 2013 session.
“The discussion is the House may not be able to get the bill off the House floor,” Buford said. “We are not sure on the Senate side that we’re going to get to handle it. There is some support here in the Senate; there was last year, and there will probably be some if the bill comes over. There could be some changes, that, in my opinion, that would require local government — councils, commissions and fiscal courts — to take a position on this. On the Senate side, generally, we head toward local control.”
The bill is being hotly debated in Kentucky, one of the nation’s top tobacco-producing states, according to the AP.
The House Health and Welfare Committee voted to approve the measure, which is now awaiting a vote on the House floor.
The governor initially pressed for the smoking ban during his annual State of the Commonwealth speech to a joint session of the legislature two weeks ago, saying the 25 percent of Kentuckians who smoke still could light up if the measure passes, just not in places where they would expose others to their smoke.
Beshear said some three dozen cities and counties in Kentucky already have smoking bans. That includes large cities like Lexington and Louisville as well as small towns like Beattyville and Manchester, according to the AP.
House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, has said the measure, which would have been quashed in year's past, appears to have a shot at passage this year. Some House Republicans, however, oppose the measure, arguing that the legislature shouldn't be dictating smoking bans in local jurisdictions. Decisions about where people should smoke, they contend, should rest with city and county governments.
“This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue,” Beshear said. “This is an issue that affects Kentucky.”
But Damron reiterated that the matter should be left up to local officials.
“I patronize nonsmoking facilities and nonsmoking restaurants; that’s where I go to eat, but I don’t think it’s up to me at the state legislative level to tell (Jessamine County Judge-Executive) Neal Cassity, (Nicholasville Mayor) Russ (Meyer) and (Wilmore Mayor) Harold (Rainwater) what kind of smoking ban they ought to have in Jessamine County,” he said.
Editor’s note: Roger Alford, a news writer for the AP, contributed information to this story.
