Bill banning smoking at restaurants ‘gutted’

By John Rodgers, NashvilleCityPaper.com
May 16, 2007

A Senate panel “gutted” a bill banning smoking at restaurants Tuesday, changing it to only prohibit smoking at government buildings in Tennessee.

But the bill is still alive, and is now headed to the Senate floor, where Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville), the sponsor of the bill, hopes it can be changed back to its original form to include banning smoking at restaurants.

“Well, they gutted it, but we got it to the floor and we can maybe amend it,” Tracy said.

In an effort to cut down on exposure to secondhand smoke, Tracy was sponsoring a bill to prohibit smoking at restaurants, but continue to allow smoking in bars, small businesses, farmers and tobacco shops.

“It’s about health, it’s about common sense,” Tracy told the Commerce Committee. “And this is just a common sense approach.”

But the Senate Commerce Committee voted 6-0 with three abstentions to strip the bill so it would only prohibit smoking at state or local government-owned, leased or operated buildings.

Smoking is currently prohibited in state-owned buildings. The bill would apply to state, city, county or local government buildings, many of which already prohibit smoking.

Sen. Paul Stanley (R-Germantown), who sponsored the amendment, said he is in favor of banning smoking at restaurants, but wanted to “insure” the bill would pass the Commerce Committee so he weakened the bill.

“Sometimes in chess you’ve got to move backward in order to move forward,” Stanley said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Phil Bredesen’s more comprehensive “Smokefree Tennessee” bill – which would ban smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants – was delayed.

Sen. Roy Herron (D-Dresden), the sponsor of the workplace smoking ban bill, said he didn’t have the votes for the Commerce Committee to pass “Smokefree Tennessee” and didn’t want the bill to be killed.

“The bill is still alive,” Herron said. “Admittedly, it’s coughing a bit of the smoky-haze, but it’s still breathing.”

Susan Cooper, the commissioner of the Department of Health, said she’s “very optimistic” Bredesen’s “Smokefree Tennessee” bill would become law.

“I have faith that the General Assembly will do the right thing in the end,” Cooper said.