Bill offers smoke-free tax break

Publication Date: 2007-02-08

• Author:Andrew A. Green
• Publication:Baltimore Sun

Seeking to head off legislation that would ban smoking in bars and restaurants statewide, a Baltimore County senator has revived a proposal to give tax breaks to businesses that voluntarily go smoke-free.

Sen. Katherine A. Klausmeier, a Democrat, said she wants to offer a "carrot instead of a stick," in an effort to blunt pressure for a mandatory smoking ban.

"This bill is a compromise to allow restaurants and bars to voluntarily go smoke-free, but to allow them to make a business decision on whether or not to do so," Klausmeier said.

The idea ran into swift opposition from health advocates, who contend that a ban is necessary to protect bar and restaurant workers from exposure to harmful second-hand smoke.

"We would be creating a system of rewarding people for doing something they should be doing all along, and that is to protect their employees' health," said Bonita Pennino, government relations director for the American Cancer Society in Maryland. "We don't give an incentive to restaurants to keep rodents out of the kitchen. We feel this is very much along the same lines."