Tobacco.org

• Smoking bills may test if tobacco is still king in Va.  

Should state government protect Moskowitz and millions of others by banning smoking in restaurants? The debate is fuming in the General Assembly this winter, where lawmakers are considering about a dozen bills that would limit lighting up.

A coalition of health-care groups, saying the costs of secondhand smoke on lives and the economy are too great to ignore, wants to ban smoking in restaurants. The measure is endorsed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and appears to have safe passage though the state Senate, which has approved the ban in each of the past two years.

But a snag remains in the House of Delegates, where Republican leaders say government should not referee smoking in restaurants.

"Restaurant owners don't need government to tell them what to do," said Del. Tom Gear, R-Hampton, who heads a subcommittee that has killed the bill without a recorded vote in each of the past two years.

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