KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Jan. 23 – Sen. David Wysong, R-Mission Hills, said he is working hard behind the scenes to build support for his bill to ban smoking in most public places in Kansas.
His immediate task is convincing members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to send Senate Bill 37 to the floor with a favorable recommendation.
“We have to change the mindset of people on this issue,” Wysong said. “It is no longer a social issue, it is a health issue.”
The committee is scheduled to discuss and perhaps vote on the bill at its Wednesday meeting, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in room 123-S at the Statehouse.
The Judiciary committee received testimony from 22 individuals and organizations during a hearing on SB 37 last week: 12 for the bill, nine against and one neutral.
Those supporting the bill spoke of conclusive research that shows secondhand smoke is a contributor to lung cancer and health problems. Most of the nine against the bill were business owners from the Lawrence and Kansas City area who said that local smoking bans had hurt their restaurants and bars.
In other tobacco-related news:
Doug Farmer, chief of staff for Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison, updated the House Appropriations Committee on the status of funds apportioned to
Kansas by the Master Settlement Agreement
that resulted when states sued the big
tobacco companies seeking compensation
for the costs of treating sick
smokers.
Kansas’ percentage of the settlement is scheduled to increase in April 2008, resulting in about $15 million more in annual payments, raising the projected total to about $75 million.
But Kansas received about $5 million less in 2006 than it expected after tobacco manufacturers withheld a portion of their yearly payments, claiming their market shares were adversely affected by the agreement.
Farmer said Morrison’s office would take part in a conference call later Tuesday with other state attorneys general to discuss a counter-proposal to manufacturers who have withheld funds.
The National Association of Attorneys General should have a counter-proposal ready in February, Farmer said, which will show that the manufacturers have not been adversely affected.