Why did the Democrats have to "sneak" the smoking ban plan into action?
Jump to full article: OnMilwaukee.com, 2009-05-08
Author: Doug Hissom Special to OnMilwaukee.com
Intro: Arguments aside, the way leading lawmakers handled the issue of a potential statewide smoking ban in taverns and restaurants this week was not in the spirit of a more transparent government.
The two committee chairman handling the bill -- Jon Erpenbach and Jon Richards -- gave a just a shade more than the required 24-hour notice before holding a hearing and then voting on the bill.
With the Democrats now in control of the dome, it's expected that the ban will sail through the Legislature swimmingly, so there was really no reason for legislative subterfuge.
Republicans were in the majority and able to block such efforts last year. Gov. Jim Doyle tried to shove this policy in the budget, but Democratic leadership thought that move even less transparent and figured this would be a better dog-and-pony show.
It didn't get past Milwaukee Ald. Bob Donovan, who sent out a scathing press release about the under-the-radar hearings.
"It now seems Gov. Doyle and some state legislators are willing to throw out the constitution on their crusade to snuff out smoking," . . .
The Cigar Store Alliance of Wisconsin showed up in force, telling the committee that they have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on ventilation and air purification systems and other amenities. They unanimously said that a smoking ban would shut down their businesses. The response to the cigar group from anti-smoking folks was that it was too bad that they made a bad business decision given the environment towards smoking.
A more interesting comment came from a women identified as "Miss Thompson." She sees the anti-smoking folks as conducting a "witch hunt" and that it's a "Nazi ideology that the individual belongs to the state" and that victims are being kept in the dark by a "censured media" while government is "totally corrupt and out of control."
Sometimes, the advocates for the ban got their facts confused, with one Lung Association representative saying that four of every five people are non-smokers and another Lung Association rep asserting that the figures are three non-smokers for every four people.
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