In a Star Tribune article last week, Governor Tim Pawlenty has said that he would sign legislation approving a statewide ban on smoking in most public places, if such a bill ever got to his desk.
That’s quite a signal for the Governor to send the Legislature. Quite overt. No posturing for a future bargaining position there. If you do X, I’ll do Y. Simply put. That’s rare in politics. Something simply put, that is.
The policy issue of prohibiting or limiting the right to smoke tobacco in places where the smoke from that tobacco reaches the noses of non-smokers is an issue that we wrestled with in Eden Prairie in 2002. We wrestled it to, essentially, a draw. The Council adopted an ordinance that prohibited smoking in public parks and on public trails, but added little to advance the cause of the non-smoking advocates. The Council did appoint a task force that studied the issued and produced a Clean Indoor Air Program, which the Council adopted in late 2003.
We were to launch the program in November 2004, but when the Hennepin County Board decided to approve its own County-wide ordinance limiting smoking, we decided to sideline our local program so as not confuse the public about where and when they could smoke and not smoke. Too many governments legislating this issue would be bad for everyone – smokers and non-smokers alike.
As I’ve said before on this issue, there are tough politics behind the scenes. There are significant economic interests that benefit from the current climate where smokers still have freedom to smoke almost wherever they want. Curtailing this right may cause just enough of a hassle for them that more smokers may become non-smokers. That would be a desirable outcome for public health, but it will impact some parties financially – and they’ll fight it. Just wait and see.
