Smoking ban in for debate over exemptions

Publication Date: 2006-03-14

• Author:Lynn Bartels
• Publication:Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)

Conference committee to mold final version of bill

It's tough-love time for the proposed statewide smoking ban.

Owners of bingo parlors, racetracks and mom-and-pop neighborhood bars cheered at the Senate version of the bill because it exempted their operations.

But they likely won't be smiling later this week when a conference committee composed of three senators and three representatives meets to hammer out a final version of the bill.

The sponsors, Rep. Mike May, R-Parker, and Sen. Dan Grossman, D-Denver, want a strict ban on smoking that exempts as few workplaces as possible. Neither of them liked what the Senate did to the bill.