Smoking bill to be retooled
Rep. Hugh Holliman is getting ready to retool his smoking bill.
It will be (or has been, I may have missed it) re-referred to the House Judiciary Committee where it will be scheduled for a hearing and a vote Thursday.
The measure, Holliman said, will be rewritten to do a statewide smoking ban in restaurants and to end pre-emption. That's the state law that requires all smoking laws be set at the state level rather than allowing local governments to set their own rules.
"I'm getting a lot of traction with that," Holliman said.
While this is a step back from the original bill - which would ban smoking in virtually any business - but would be progress as far as smoking advocates were concerned.