SB 1105 – the smoking ban – has passed the Senate 27-13 and the House 60-39.
The following members stood for liberty:
NAYS–Cuccinelli, Hanger, Hurt, Martin, McDougle, Newman, Obenshain, Reynolds, Ruff, Smith, Stosch, Wampler, Watkins–13.
NAYS–Abbitt, Athey, Byron, Cline, Cole, Fralin, Frederick, Gear, Gilbert, Griffith, Hall, Hargrove, Hogan, Hugo, Ingram, Janis, Kilgore, Lewis, Lohr, Loupassi, Marshall, D.W., Massie, Merricks, Nichols, Nixon, Nutter, O’Bannon, Peace, Pogge, Poindexter, Pollard, Putney, Saxman, Scott, E.T., Sherwood, Shuler, Ware, O., Ware, R.L., Wright–39.
Not a single Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, or Chesapeake senator or delegate voted “Nay.”
Here’s the key part of the bill:
A. Effective December 1, 2009, smoking shall be prohibited and no person shall smoke in any restaurant in the Commonwealth or in any restroom within such restaurant, except that smoking may be permitted in:
1. Any place or operation that prepares or stores food for distribution to persons of the same business operation or of a related business operation for service to the public. Examples of such places or operations include the preparation or storage of food for catering services, pushcart operations, hotdog stands, and other mobile points of service;
2. Any outdoor area of a restaurant, with or without roof covering, at such times when such outdoor area is not enclosed in whole or in part by any screened walls, roll-up doors, windows or other seasonal or temporary enclosures;
3. Any restaurants located on the premises of any manufacturer of tobacco products;
4. Any portion of a restaurant that is used exclusively for private functions, provided such functions are limited to those portions of the restaurant that meet the requirements of subdivision 5;
5. Any portion of a restaurant that is constructed in such a manner that the area where smoking may be permitted is (i) structurally separated from the portion of the restaurant in which smoking is prohibited and to which ingress and egress is through a door and (ii) separately vented to prevent the recirculation of air from such area to the area of the restaurant where smoking is prohibited. At least one public entrance to the restaurant shall be into an area of the restaurant where smoking is prohibited. For the purposes of the preceding sentence, nothing shall be construed to require the creation of an additional public entrance in cases where the only public entrance to a restaurant in existence as of December 1, 2009, is through an outdoor area described in subdivision 2; and
6. Any private club.
Perhaps it is moot, as the governor is sure to sign this bill, but much of Virginia already is “smoke free” and the free market is working.
From a Longwood University study:
According to the data from OEHS, of 134 Virginia localities, the majority of restaurants in 101 localities (75.4 percent of all those in the Commonwealth) do not permit smoking. Those localities account for nearly seven million Virginians or 90.1 percent of the total population. Of the localities where the majority of restaurants already are smoke-free, forty-three (32.1 percent of all localities; 4.3 million Virginians) attain a level of smoke-free restaurants that exceeds sixty-five percent. Therefore, over half (55.7 percent) of Virginians reside in localities where over two-thirds of the restaurants currently do not permit smoking. Only thirty-three localities (24.6 percent of all localities) fall below the fifty percent mark for smoke-free restaurants, affecting 772,112 Virginians (9.9 percent of all Commonwealth residents).
So much for the free market.
