Texas Lawmakers Persistent on Smoking Ban

Texas lawmakers say the fight to ban smoking in restaurants, bars, and most public places is still alive.

May 18, 2011

AUSTIN - The Texas lawmakers who are proposing HB 670, which would make Texas the first southern state to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and most public places, maintain the proposal is still alive, The Texas Tribune reports.

State Rep. Myra Crownover, one of the bill??s 74 supporters, said she is hopeful she can amend the bill onto SB 1811, a broad fiscal measure that is being addressed today, by tying it to health and state licenses concerning cleanliness and food quality. She said she has recruited about 100 House lawmakers to support the amendment, and that "if rat droppings are a problem, so is benzene, arsenic and formaldehyde in the air."

The newspaper speculated that SB 1811 "is likely to become a Christmas tree for dead or dying bills," and one that Rep. Rob Eissler characterized as an "excellent opportunity" for enacting a smoking ban.

"A bill that would save as many lives and as much money as this one is never dead," Ellis said. "The burden will be on the people who vote against saving lives."

According to the bill??s fiscal note, the measure would save the state an estimated $31 million in state Medicaid costs over the next biennium. It would continue to allow smoking in nursing homes, outdoor seating areas of bars and restaurants, and tobacco-related businesses.

Opponents of the bill argue it encroaches on personal freedom and sets a dangerous precedent for banning legal activity in public places.

Three southern states ?" Florida, Louisiana and North Carolina ?" prohibit smoking in either restaurants and bars or workplaces, but not both.

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