Smoking Bills Die in House Panel

By Mason Adams mason.adams@roanoke.com (804) 697-1584

RICHMOND — The hopes of Virginians who want to restrict smoking went down in flames Thursday when a House of Delegates subcommittee killed four Senate bills with a unanimous vote.

The defeat of the legislation comes as another political setback this year for Gov. Tim Kaine, who’s watched as the General Assembly has defeated measures he’s backed.

Last month the House and Senate both defeated bills to require criminal background checks for all firearms purchased at gun shows, and a proposed constitutional amendment to offer targeted real estate tax relief for homeowners was killed in the Senate Finance Committee. The House passed the amendment, but it’s now headed back to that same Senate committee.

Kaine said after the smoking bills were killed that it’s not surprising the action was taken in a House of Delegates subcommittee, where bills can be killed without a recorded vote. Republicans instituted that rule two years ago in what their leaders described as an effort to improve the efficiency of the legislative process. Democrats sought again last month to abolish the procedure, which they say stifles debate.

“Obviously I think the leadership in the House is very afraid to have this matter voted on in an up-or-down vote, so they wanted to bury it in subcommittee,” Kaine said.

The Senate bills offered three options to restrict smoking:

n Ban smoking in all areas except in private homes, cars, private clubs, motel rooms designated for smoking, specialty tobacco stores, tobacco manufacturers and certain rooms in nursing homes and long- term care facilities.

n Ban smoking in restaurants and bars.

n Offer counties, cities and towns the option to pass ordinances banning smoking within their boundaries.

A fourth bill would have allowed the local option only for localities in the Hampton Roads area.

The four bills were killed in a block by a voice vote in a House General Laws subcommittee that considers alcohol and gaming legislation.

Del. Dave Albo, R-Fairfax County, who made the motion to table and effectively kill the bills, said he’s “not against doing something” but thinks the legislature needs to rework its laws regarding the definition of a restaurant first.

Currently, state law doesn’t distinguish between bars and restaurants, and an establishment has to sell a certain amount of food to get its state license to sell alcoholic beverages.

“The real problem is that in the bar area, people want to smoke, in the restaurant area they don’t, and our current laws don’t make a distinction between a bar and a restaurant,” Albo said.

Kaine said he’d work with lawmakers but seemed skeptical. He said that the inclusion of language exempting outdoor areas from a restaurant smoking ban didn’t make a difference this year, even among those who cited that as their reason for voting against last year’s bill.

Those in favor of the bills said secondhand smoke is a major public health issue. They cited a poll released last month showing that 75 percent of Virginia voters favor a statewide law prohibiting smoking inside all public buildings and workplaces.

Opponents from the restaurant industry argued the bills would trample on the liberties of business owners. Two-thirds of restaurants are already smoke free, they said, and the industry as a whole is moving toward smoke-free restaurants even without government intervention.

Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, who carried the restaurant ban, said he believes the less government, the better. But the government also has a responsibility to protect its citizens.

“Specifically in restaurants, we have a regulation that tells food preparers and employees to wash their hands after they use the restroom,” Northam said.

“We’d like to know that our food, that the plates that it’s served on, that the glasses our beverages come in, are clean. So there’s a reason for regulation,” he said.

Former Sen. Brandon Bell of Roanoke County, who brought the legislation to prominence after first getting it through the Senate in 2006, was visiting Richmond on Thursday, but didn’t make the meeting. He did anticipate its results.

“The frustrating thing is there’s not even an intent from the House side to even look for any common ground on it,” Bell said.

He predicted that the General Assembly would eventually pass some sort of smoking legislation because of constituent pressure or because voters would replace their representatives.

That didn’t seem to comfort Cathleen Smith Grzesiek, who as chairwoman of Virginians for a Healthy Future worked with Bell and this year’s sponsors. She said that along with the 7,000 Virginians who die each year from smoking-related illnesses, another 1,000 perish as a result of secondhand smoke.

“If this is the end for these bills, this committee has just signed the death warrant for 1,000 people in the next year,” Grzesiek said.

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