Smoking bill amendments anger Gov. Kaine
AP Political Writer
Published: February 10, 2009
Updated: February 10, 2009
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine said amendments that substantially diluted a compromise to sharply curb smoking in Virginia restaurants breached a deal he made with House Republican leaders.
Kaine wouldn’t commit Tuesday to vetoing the measure if the House amendments remain, but he was clear that they are unpalatable.
In the governor’s words, “We need to get the bill back to the deal.“
He particularly disliked a Republican amendment that would exempt any restaurant off-limits to minors from the smoking restrictions.
Other amendments weakened requirements to create separately ventilated smoking rooms in eateries and exempt restaurants rented for private, invitation-only events.
Both bills now head to the Senate where amendments await.
Reader Reactions
If anyone has gone to a city where smoking in restaurants is banned, you will not see a decrease in patronage. I was in Charleston, SC a while back and the restaurants were packed with non-smokers. While I realize that Charleston is considerably more “touristy”, I did not see a single person complaining about having to go outside to have a smoke. I was even in bars that were more “local clientele” based, and they didn’t seem to mind the lack of smoking either.
business will tank if they don’t allow smoking.
Fine, if restaurant owners feel some need to continue allowing smoking then they shouldn’t whine when their business tanks because they are stuck in the mid-20th Century.
everything Kaine wants should be turned down. democrats just do not know what they are getting for a chairman.
Just a few more months and Kaine is gone any way. He is probally spending more time in DC anyway these days than in Va. It should be up to the restaurants themselves to whether they want to allow smoking or not. Have we gotten go bad that everything we do has to be governed by the law. Come on people. Before you know it we are going to end up like the other foreign countries. We are going to end up that we are going to have to ask permission to speak or even go to the restroom. To many laws for us to deal with. Stop all the laws and let the restaurant owners decide if they want to stop smoking in their place of business or not. If that bothers people then they know they will either lose business or not. So be it. It was an ownership decision.
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