A move toward smoke-free bars and casinos halfway moved through a Senate committee this week. The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted 4-3 to snuff out butts in bars, but removed the ban in casinos from the bill.
According to a report from The Times-Picayune's website, this legislation marks the third time that a smoking bill has made it out of committee. The bill has always died later in the legislative process.
State Sen. Rob Marionneaux Jr., D-Livonia, tells The T-P, "We'll take what we can get:"
At least 27 states have enacted similar bans, [Marionneaux] said.
Opponents, said a ban would spell economic harm for bars and gambling establishments, curtail personal freedom and reduce state tax revenues.
Voting for the ban were Sens. Butch Gautreaux, D-Morgan City, Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth, Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, and Cynthia Willard-Lewis, D-New Orleans. Voting against it were Sens. David Heitmeier, D-Algiers, Sherri Cheek, R-Shreveport, and Fred Mills Jr., R-St. Martinville.
Although the fate of the statewide ban remains unknown, the 2007 Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act allows municipalities and local governments to enact their own bans on smoking in bars and casinos, the last two public places where smokers can light up inside.
Local musicians David Egan and Chubby Carrier, along with Acadiana Sports League owner Zachary Barker, have joined Louisiana Tobacco Free Living in its Let's Be Totally Clear campaign to end smoking in bars and casinos. They have advocated for Lafayette to be the first city in the state to enact a local ban.
Since their push toward a local ban started, however, the movement has yet to gain any tangible traction among local officials.
Read more on the issue here.
For more on smoking legislation in Louisiana, read The Ind's March 16 cover story, "Smoke Signals."
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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But what I find TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE is banning smoking in bars, but not casinos. If it's not right for casinos, then leave small businessmen that own bars alone, too.