Plan to soften smoking ban running out of time

Publication Date: 2009-05-14

• Author:ED VOGEL
• Publication:Las Vegas Review-Journal

'Controversial bill' may not make it, says chairman

A Senate-passed bill to allow patrons to smoke in bars that serve food could die because there is not enough time to consider amendments, a chairman said Wednesday.

After a two-hour hearing in which witnesses could speak no more than five minutes, Assembly Judiciary Chairman Bernie Anderson said Senate Bill 372 may be the victim of the 1998 constitutional amendment limiting the Legislature to 120 days...

The bill, backed 14-5 in the Senate, would allow smoking in taverns and bars that serve food as long as minors are not permitted on the premises.

Anderson and others suggested during the hearing that if the bill were to pass, then such bars should erect large signs telling patrons that smoking is permitted.

Legislators are not allowed to change voter-approved laws until three years after their passage. SB 372, if passed, would go into effect on Dec. 9.