Jump to full article: Green Bay (WI) Press-Gazette, 2009-08-25
Author: Rep. John Nygren
Intro: The Green Bay Press-Gazette's editorial "Legislature needlessly relights debate" (Aug. 19) left out some of the facts about the bill to partially exempt hotels from the statewide smoking ban.
Assembly Bill 295 would allow 25 percent of rooms in a lodging establishment to be smoking. No other state in the nation completely bans smoking in these establishments. We would be at a competitive disadvantage to Minnesota (which even with its ban does not completely ban smoking in lodging establishments) and Michigan (which does not have a ban) as well as our other neighbors. . . .
Prohibiting hotels from allowing smoking rooms only entered the smoking ban at the very end because of some secret negotiations that I was not a part of. Only the authors and special-interest groups were involved to my knowledge.
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