Loophole in no-smoking law targeted

BOISE – The Legislature’s leading opponent of smoking isn’t finished yet.

Republican Sen. Brent Hill of Rexburg, who convinced lawmakers last winter to ban smoking in nearly all public places except bars and bowling alleys, now wants to close a loophole some restaurants have used to cater to their tobacco-using customers.

To get around the ban, a number of restaurateurs have turned their establishments into private clubs – offering membership at a token fee – so the ban no longer applies.

“They’re doing it as a sham,” Hill said. “It’s not fair to the rest of the restaurants who are complying with the law. The whole point is to put everyone on a level playing field.”

The ban exempts “buildings owned and operated by social, fraternal, or religious organizations.”

Clancy McCool, who turned his Sav-On Cafe in downtown Boise into a private club last summer, expects to be run out of business if Hill succeeds.

“As a group of restaurants, do we have a chance to combat this? I don’t think we do,” McCool said. “They’re going to set it up so it doesn’t matter what even a minority of the people want.”

The senator does intend to exempt veterans homes so aging former members of the military can continue smoking. The inclusion of those facilities in the ban, said Republican Sen. Dick Compton of Coeur d’Alene, was “one of the lunacies of the smoking bill.”

But possibly offsetting that effort, Hill said, could be the attempt of others to bring bowling alleys under the smoking ban.

Also at issue is whether the 29-cent-a-pack cigarette tax increase imposed in 2003 should be allowed to expire as scheduled next July. While there seems little doubt that the penny sales tax increase will be dropped then as planned, there is mounting support to keep the cigarette tax at 57 cents a pack and keep the extra $22 million a year it provides.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne originally proposed that the increase be permanent. The Legislature disagreed two years ago, but might reconsider.

Even some conservatives, who oppose higher taxes in general, believe the cigarette tax is cutting tobacco use.

“I have not heard the kind of promises made to eliminate that as we have on the sales tax,” Republican Sen. John McGee of Nampa said.