State smoking ban gets support

Publication Date: 2007-11-18

• Author:Bill McCarthy
• Publication:Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

Representative Lori Millin hopes to introduce a bill for a statewide ban this session.

The campaign to restrict smoking in public places statewide has found a champion in the Wyoming House of Representatives and is optimistic that a state senator will introduce proposed legislation as well.

"Everyone was kind of saying let's wait until the next session (in 2009)," said Rep. Lori Millin, D-Cheyenne, when the Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Interim Committee failed earlier this month to sponsor a statewide bill similar to the smoking ban now in effect in Cheyenne.

The committee needed two-thirds of its senators and two-thirds of its House members to approve its sponsorship during the 20-day budget session that begins Feb. 11. It did not receive enough House votes.

A member of that committee, Millin said she was initially surprised by the committee vote and thought that she was going to wait until the 2009 general session.