Senate kills statewide ban on smoking
Effect on small bars was sticking point for lawmakers
By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News
May 10, 2005
A statewide smoking ban died Monday, but smokers weren't celebrating.
They now fear that Coloradans will put a tough anti-smoking proposal on the
ballot next year that would outlaw smoking in virtually every workplace in the
state.
"This is bad, bad news," said Seth Ford, a lobbyist for the organization that
represents Colorado bar owners.
A number of lawmakers said they could have supported a ban if neighborhood bars
were exempted.
But the House last week included those bars in the ban. The Senate on Monday
refused to agree to the House version of the bill.
Some Republican lawmakers were disappointed that Sen. Dan Grossman, D-Denver,
didn't offer to try to work to exclude bars. But Grossman said the House got it
right, when it made the bill tougher than the Senate version.
Two Democrats, Sens. Stephanie Takis, of Aurora, and Lois Tochtrop, of Adams
County, voted with Republicans in rejecting the House version of the bill.
Grossman then offered a procedural move that effectively killed Senate Bill 207.
Afterward, he was steamed. He said he doubts he'll try again next year because
he doesn't think lawmakers will change their minds.
"This was the right thing to do," he said of a tough ban. "We talk about
smoking
like it's some kind of God-given right or benign choice, and that's simply not
the issue."
Senate Minority Leader Mark Hillman, R-Burlington, fought any kind of ban.
"I think Colorado is big enough to accommodate smokers and nonsmokers," he said.
Hillman said if the issue were truly about health, as the sponsors
claimed, they
wouldn't have exempted casinos and tobacco bars. But he said those
establishments got waivers because they have money.
Sen. Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, read a letter he received from a
Fountain bar owner, who said she would have to file for bankruptcy if the ban
passed.
"We sell alcohol to people who drink and smoke," the bar owner said. "The last
time I checked, both were legal."
Grossman touted a survey by the American Cancer Society last month that showed
66 percent of Coloradans supported a bill requiring all bars, restaurants and
casinos to be smoke-free.
He said Republicans and rural Coloradans also favored the ban.
Colorado currently has a patchwork of smoking regulations that vary from one
government jurisdiction to the next.
That's one reason the Colorado Restaurant Association supported a
statewide ban.
Restaurant owners around the state complained that when their city enacted a
ban, customers moved to the restaurant across the border.