Smoking ban to survive this General Assembly intact

Publication Date: 2008-12-17

• Publication:The Columbus Dispatch

Though attempts to shoot holes in a smoking ban approved by Ohio voters in 2006 are almost sure to continue, legislative leaders have snuffed out a proposed exemption being pushed during the final days of the lame duck session.

Sen. Gary Cates, R-West Chester, proposed attaching an amendment to HB 327, a city health board bill, that would have exempted cigar bars from the smoking ban.

But both Senate President Bill M. Harris and House Speaker Jon Husted said Tuesday that they do not support exemptions to the smoking ban so soon after the sweeping prohibition was approved by voters. However, Harris expects the issue to be debated again next year.