North Dakota legislative notebook: N.D. funding bills take hits

Publication Date: 2005-02-16

• Author:--
• Publication:The Forum

The House's workplace smoking ban measure, House Bill 1030, was ready for floor action on amendments Tuesday when it was pulled off the calendar and sent back to the House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee.

Chairman C.B. "Buck" Haas, R-Taylor, said the committee planned to clarify that cities that already have stricter bans than called for in the amended bill will not have to relax their laws.

The bill declares that the state labor commissioner may not regulate smoking and turns over all smoking-ban decisions to local governments. It then dictates to the local governments that they can't ban smoking in tobacco shops, truck stops, livestock sales rings or certain hospitals, such as the State Hospital...