Restaurant smoking ban is extinguished

A Texas State senator’s initiative to pass a statewide smoking ban in restaurants has been extinguished for now, but a spokesman for Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, says it’s likely legislators will relight the bill in future legislative sessions.
Senate Bill 544 made it through the Health and Human Services Committee but fell one vote short of getting a full hearing in the Texas Senate, said Jeremy Warren, communications director for Ellis, the bill’s sponsor.

With only 12 days left in the legislative session, Warren says the bill is done for this season. To try again, lawmakers will have to revive it at the next session in two years, he added.
Citing the journalists’ shield law that passed the Texas Legislature on its third try, Warren said smoking-ban supporters are likely to try again. “Sometimes a third time is a charm, but for this session it is no more,” Warren said.
The Texas Restaurant Association supported the ban, considering it the only means to equalize competition among local jurisdictions, where some municipalities have enacted bans and others have left the decision up to restaurant owners.
The association in a statement Wednesday said, "The Texas Restaurant Association is disappointed by the failure of the proposed statewide smoking ban to pass the Texas State Senate. While this issue has long been a contentious one, TRA believes that applying a smoking ban across all workplaces and all jurisdictions is the only equitable solution to a growing social concern." From HBJ may 20, 2009 for more information see www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com