Statewide smoking ban considered

If the resolution is passed, citizens would vote on the ban in 2010.

By Eva Dou

Published Jan. 26, 2009

A Missouri lawmaker wants citizens to vote on a statewide smoking ban.

Rep. Joe Fallert, D-Ste. Genevieve, filed a resolution that would let voters decide whether a ban on smoking in public places should be added to the state constitution.

"When I did my constituent survey last year, about 58 percent of those who responded said they supported a public ban," Fallert said.

The announcement comes as MU students adapt to a new smoking policy stating they can't light up within 20 feet of any building owned or leased by the school. That rule is the first of a three-step process, which aims for a smoke-free campus by 2014.

Fallert said some legislators might be wary of supporting a bill that is a straightforward ban on public smoking. He said there is a better chance in passing a resolution that offers the ultimate decision to the people.

"As controversial as this is, I'm more likely to get a hearing if it is a resolution, not a regular bill," Fallert said.

The only previous proposal of a statewide ban was made last year, but the bill, sponsored by Sen. Joan Bray, D-St. Louis County, received poor support and failed without a hearing.

Some Columbia delegates expressed concern over the resolution wording.

"I generally support measures to decrease smoking in public areas, but this measure is entirely too broad," Rep. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, said.

Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, said his vote would partly depend on the resolution's definition of "public places."

"I generally don't oppose issues such as this going to a vote of the people," Schaefer said in an e-mail. "But I would have a concern if it dictates what people can do on their own property."

More than half of the 50 states have enacted a type of statewide smoking ban, but Missouri residents and legislators have historically resisted such a measure.

"Missouri being the Show-me State, residents don't really like being told what to do," said Victoria Warren, Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program coordinator at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. "Also, I think there is a perceived economic issue, the perception that business will be lost."

Only 27.5 percent of Missourians support a statewide ban on smoking in all bars and restaurants, according to a survey conducted by the department in October 2008.

Missouri, a tobacco-growing state, has one of the nation's highest percentages of smokers. It also has the second lowest excise tax on cigarettes.

Columbia banned smoking in most public places in 2007. It is one of eight Missouri cities, the largest being Kansas City, that have banned smoking in all bars and restaurants.

Smoking restrictions have been rejected in St. Louis and Jefferson City, among other localities.

"In other states, it often takes several large communities going smoke-free to have the critical mass of people needed for a statewide ban," Warren said.

The economic effects of a ban remain in dispute.

According to a study conducted last year, Columbia restaurants saw losses in sales revenue in the first year of the smoking ban. Michael Pakko, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the study's author, attributed the losses to the ban.

Warren, an MU graduate, disagreed. She said the Columbia restaurant industry has always been volatile, even when she was a student.

"We have been tracking Columbia since the ban started," she said. "We do not believe there has been a decrease in sales."