Smoke and Mirrors

What explains the staying power of legislation that would allow smokers to continue lighting up in bars and casinos after Jan. 1? Is it the generous campaign contributions from tobacco and gambling lobbyists to friendly lawmakers? Oh, say not.

California’s 1995 workplace smoke ban specifically allowed smoking in casinos and bars, including those inside restaurants, through the end of 1996.

Last year, legislators extended that exemption one year, until next Jan. 1. To no one’s surprise, at the beginning of this session yet another extension was introduced. That proposal died quickly, but like the multiplying heads on the mythological Hydra, each defeat has brought forth yet another try.

And as the legislative session has drawn short, friendly lawmakers have accommodated each new or amended proposal by bending the Legislature’s own long-standing rules for conducting business. Are the members of a particular legislative committee likely to be unreceptive? No problem; waive the rules and route the bill through a friendly panel. Will the Legislature’s established deadlines for passing bills fall before the latest smoking exemption is heard? No sweat, just bend another rule and amend the bill wholesale into a bill that has met the deadlines and is close to passage.

This resourcefulness would be comical if it weren’t in the service of interests so pernicious. Monday the exemption passed the full Assembly; final Senate action must occur by Friday when the legislative session ends. In the meantime, our lawmakers are behaving like smokers so desperate for a cigarette they must resort to sifting through ashtrays for a butt.