House committee OKs smoking curbs

HELENA - A revised plan for a statewide ban on smoking in public was resurrected in the Montana Legislature on Wednesday, with former opponents signing on to get the bill out of committee.

A new provision that would allow smoking in bars and casinos until 2009 was the key change that won the support of the Montana Tavern Association, said Mark Staples, the association's lobbyist.

After Sept. 30, 2009, smoking would be banned in all places that the public can freely enter.

"You don't turn society and businesses on a dime," Staples said. "Four years is a long time … if [proponents] are right that the public demands this, we'll know in four years."

House Bill 643, sponsored by Rep. Tim Dowell, D-Kalispell, appeared to be stalled in the House Human Services Committee on a tie vote that crossed party lines. But the committee passed the amended version Wednesday afternoon on a 13-3 vote.

Staples said the association's leadership gave him approval to endorse the amended version of House Bill 643, but some bar and casino owners in Montana will still oppose it.

Staples and Dowell both said the bill has a good chance of clearing the Legislature.

"If it wasn't a deal that we didn't think would hold up, we wouldn't support it," Staples said.

Dowell said the bill's chances are good because it has a well-organized coalition of public health organizations supporting, and very little remaining opposition.

"And it's heavily supported by the public," Dowell said, citing a 2002 poll in which 66 percent of Montana respondents said they would favor statewide smoking ban.

"The way public sentiment is going, I think support for it would be even greater now," he said.

The Tavern Association's leadership supported the bill for other reasons.

"Both sides believe that without something like this, an initiative drive would be inevitable, along with all the costs and unpredictability that [voter initiatives] come with," Staples said.

There is also a "growing recognition that although the culture in America is changing in regards to smoking, it isn't changing overnight," Staples said.

More bar businesses are voluntarily going smokeless in Montana, he said.

"When the Rockin-R Bar in Bozeman goes nonsmoking voluntarily, you know there is a sea change afoot," Staples said.

While the Tavern Association represented the largest opposition to the bill initially, there will still be opponents, Staples said.

"There were people we didn't even talk to who felt very strongly about this bill because they felt was violating private property rights," he said. "They may be the wild card in this."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com