Senate snuffs out
smoking ban

Committee chairmen say they
want more input from the public

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

The Senate Judiciary and Health committees have stamped out a proposal for a statewide restaurant smoking ban.

An amended bill that would have prohibited smoking in enclosed restaurants that seat more than 50 people, banned smoking at all state and county athletic facilities during sporting events and ended the use of vending machines to sell cigarettes on July 1, 2003, had a hearing this morning.

But Health Committee Chairman Sen. David Matsuura and Judiciary Chairman Sen. Brian Kanno (D, Ewa Beach) withdrew the amendments.

"We were thinking about doing a little more comprehensive (bill) -- smoking in the workplace, vending machines and all that stuff," Matsuura (D, Hilo) said. "So we kind of wanted to rehear and let the public input but it's pretty hard to pass an anti-smoking bill when most of the anti-smoking groups were having a lot of problems with it."

Matsuura said there may not be enough time this session to give the public time to digest any further revisions.

"It was based on the governor's proposal on the no smoking in restaurants," Matsuura said.

But because the governor's bill had multiple committees to clear late in the first half of the session, a decision was made to defer the governor's bill and work on another anti-smoking bill and find the right bill to put it in.

Two similar statewide smoking ban bills proposed by the governor did not advance in either chamber earlier in the session.

The proposed amendments were to be added to House Bill 2429. But the committees voted to keep the measure in its original form which was to make the cigarette stamp tax permanent.

The bill was being heard on the last day before a key internal deadline when bills must be sent to their final committees.

And there is already huffing and puffing by those who would rather see the bill snuffed out.

"The Honolulu City Council has addressed it for Oahu," said Patrick McCain, president of the Hawaii Restaurant Association, which opposes the bill. "Unless there is a pre-emption, why not stick to the home rule policy and let the neighbor island counties make their own decisions?"

McCain told Senators this morning that although smoking is supposed to be banned at state buildings, ashtrays -- one within a few feet of the hearing room -- and smokers can still be seen at the state Capitol.

"The state government is not enforcing the policy," McCain said.

"In some respects I agree with what Pat McCain says that we as a state gotta take a look at cleaning up our own house before we can actually go and clean up their house," Matsuura said.

Even those who normally support anti-smoking measures opposed the amendments.

"I think the intent is good," said Clifford Chang, director of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, but he added, "We don't like the way this bill is written."

Chang said that while the bill increases protections against secondhand smoke, the definition of "restaurant" would exclude many small restaurants from the ban.

He said a better approach would be to treat restaurants as workplaces when prohibiting smoking, which is what the failed smoking ban bill did before it died earlier this session.

Anti-smoking groups were also afraid that the changes would have preempted the city's recently passed smoking ban at restaurants.

But Matsuura said his amendments would not have pre-empted the counties from enacting stricter no smoking laws.

Deborah Ishihara, Aloha Stadium Authority administrative services officer, said the stadium has an informal policy but not an established rule about not smoking in the seats. Currently, smoking is allowed in the concourses.

She said if the intent of the ban at athletic facilities is to keep cigarettes away from children, the authority would agree with that, and the ban would not be a problem to enforce. Aloha Stadium often hosts high school sporting events.

"If this passes, we certainly will abide by the statute," she said.

Gaylord Ching, president of the Hawaii Automatic Vendors Council, said that because cigarette vending machines are in bars and therefore are geared toward adults, children do not appear to be the target of this change in the law.

"It's just an overall plan. They want to end smoking," Ching said.

In 1996 a new law banned cigarette vending machines except in bars and cabarets. Now there are about 50 to 75 cigarette vending machines on Oahu and 100 to 125 statewide, or 10 percent of the number of machines before the 1996 law passed, Ching said.

If the bill passes, vending sales statewide could see a drop of up to $62,500. "It would hurt sales," he said.

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