INDIANAPOLIS — State Sen. Jean Leising is a nurse who never smoked a day in her life and she keeps her grandchildren out of smoke-filled places.
But the Republican legislator from Oldenburg led the charge against the smoking ban bill when it was debated in the state Senate last week.
She succeeded in tacking on amendments that critics say gutted the bill, but that she defends as improvements to a piece of flawed legislation that favors some interests over others.
“Some of us see this an individual rights issue because (tobacco) is a legal product,” Leising said of her Senate colleagues who oppose the proposed ban. “The nurse in me says if people truly believe the product is bad, they should be trying to ban the product.”
At issue is legislation that would outlaw smoking in most public places and workplaces across the state.
Attempts to pass a comprehensive smoking ban failed in the last six sessions, so ban supporters reluctantly agreed to file a bill this year laden with exemptions.
House Bill 1149 included a carve-out for the 11 casinos and the 2 racetrack-based racinos that generate millions of dollars in tax revenues for the state. It also exempted smoke shops, cigar and hookah bars, and private fraternal organizations that don’t allow children into their facilities.
The House bill also gave bars and taverns 18 months to comply with the ban.
By the time the Senate was done with the bill, it exempted bars and taverns from the ban, and added bingo halls, mental-health facilities and nursing homes to the list of places exempted across the state.
Leising said she knew the bill’s supporters would be unhappy with the Senate changes. But she argues the House version of the bill would have harmed the small businesses and organizations that populate her rural district in southeast Indiana.
Among her amendments is one that exempts charitable gaming, including bingo halls. She contends its unfair to let casinos and racinos off the hook, but to force churches and charitable organizations to ban smoking at their gaming events.
The casinos and racinos got their carve-out, she said, because they convinced legislators that a smoking ban would harm their business and, in turn, harm the state’s gaming revenues.
She said the same argument could be made for charitable gaming, which raises money for the sponsoring organizations and produces tax revenue for the state.
“I wanted to make sure the charitable organizations in my district could offer, if they wanted to, a smoking option,” Leising said. “The thing is, this doesn’t mean an establishment has to allow smoking. It just means they’re permitted to if they want to.”
Leising also backed an amendment that removed the ban from private fraternal clubs that allow children in their buildings. Leising said that her in district, those are the places where people often hold wedding receptions.
“Under the old version of the bill, if you had your reception at the American Legion hall, you couldn’t let the flower girl in,” she said.
The amendments that Leising and her Senate colleagues added to the bill weren’t received well by the smoking ban supporters. Senate Minority Leader Vi Simpson called the Senate-amended bill “horrible.” Amanda Estridge, the Indiana lobbyist for the American Cancer Society, called it “unacceptable.”
State Rep. Eric Turner, a Republican from Cicero who co-authored the bill, said he’ll argue to remove some of the Senate amendments when the bill goes to a legislative conference committee next week.
That’s where a group of legislators will try to hash out some compromise language. That version then goes back to the General Assembly for a final vote.
The end product likely won’t make anybody happy, Leising said. “If we really wanted a smoking ban in this state, we wouldn’t be passing one just for effect. We’d be designing one that really worked.”
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