SMOKING BAN COULD BE TOUGH TO SNUFF

Bill Regulating Bars Faces Battle In Senate

Although legislation to lift California's 30-day-old ban on smoking in bars
won surprisingly easy approval in the Assembly, patrons shouldn't plan on
lighting up anytime soon.

The bill, backed by the tobacco industry, now heads to the Senate, where it
is likely to be snuffed out.

The bill had been sitting in an Assembly committee for nearly a year before
Wednesday, when the 80-member house approved it on a vote of 42-to-24. It
stalled last year after it received bad press, prompting tobacco company
lobbyists to try to thwart the smoking ban with other legislation.

``I would expect the measure to die in the Senate,'' Senate President Pro
Tem Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward, said yesterday. ``Whether in committee or on
the floor, I'm very skeptical about its passage.''

It was Lockyer who last year helped orchestrate blocking passage of a more
restrictive bill that also would have prevented the ban from taking effect
until Jan. 1, 1999.

Lockyer sent the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee's
chair -- Senator John Bur- ton, D-San Francisco -- said there were not
enough ``aye'' votes to pass the bill.

The bill's author, Senator Ken Maddy, R-Fresno, declined to have a hearing
on the measure, and it stayed in the Judiciary Committee.

The difference this year is that Burton will replace Lockyer as leader of
the Senate on February 5, which means a new chair will be named to
Judiciary.

``If there are changes in the Judiciary Committee, that's the key,'' said
Maddy.

Burton, who opposes rescinding the ban, said yesterday that the bill
approved Wednesday by the Assembly ``as presently constructed probably has
some problems.''

He declined to say who he would name Judiciary chairperson, but said there
would be no Senate action on the smoking bill for weeks, if not months.

``It took them (the Assembly) a year to pass the bill. We ought to have
time to look at it,'' he said.

If the bill passed by the Assembly becomes law, it would end the current
ban on smoking in bars and casinos beginning January 1 next year.

It would prohibit any new ban from being imposed for two years, or until
the federal government creates national standards regulating smoking in
bars. That standard may never be created, effectively permitting smoking in
bars and casinos indefinitely.

The ban has caused anger among some bar patrons and bar owners. Some owners
have openly flouted the law, and some have even unplugged their Lotto
machines to cut revenue to the state.

``I haven't seen the kind of groundswell I'd have expected,'' said Maddy.

The smoking bill was introduced last year by Assemblyman Ed Vincent,
D-Inglewood, on behalf of Hollywood Park race track and casino, the largest
employer in his district.

Even though the bill was approved by the Assembly Labor Committee last
year, the bill stayed in the committee because of the publicity it received
over questions about whether an assemblyman illegally traded his vote.

Assemblyman Carl Washington, D-Paramount, allegedly told Vincent that he
would change his vote to ``aye'' from ``no'' in return for Vincent's
support for some of Washington's bills.

Vote trading is illegal. An investigation found Washington innocent of the
charges.

Under the rules of the Assembly, bills that stay with a committee during
the first year of the two- year legislative session can be considered again
in the second year.

Vincent's bill, which had already been voted on last year, moved to the
appropriations committee, where it was approved 13 to 6 Tuesday evening,
one day before the Assembly vote.

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page A1