Smoking bill stubbed out again
I just filed the following for tomorrow's paper, but you get early just for reading:
A bill that would have limited smoking in restaurants, requiring that smoking sections are completely blocked off from other dining areas, was killed in committee Thursday morning.
Under the bill, smoking sections could have taken up no more than 25 percent of the restaurants total dining area.
The full House has narrowly rejected a similar anti-smoking measure earlier this year, but resurrected the idea by attaching it to a separate bill that would create a licensing scheme for drug treatment professionals.
Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat, said his anti-smoking language had fallen victim to the Senate's rush to clear bills so they can stop working Saturday.
"The Senate has told us they don't have time to take up any controversial bills," Holliman said. He voluntarily stripped the measure from a drug treatment bill to allow that measure pass this summer.
Holliman said that he expected that House Speaker Jim Black would set up a study committee to review the state's smoking laws and that he would try again for a restaurant smoking ban when the General Assembly meets again next year.