FORCES - ESSAYS AND ARTICLES - With restaurant lobbyists on hand, anti-smoking bill fails

With restaurant lobbyists on hand, anti-smoking bill fails

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Tougher anti-smoking legislation for mostly upstate New York restaurants was snuffed out by four Democratic state Assembly members from areas downstate where smoking is virtually banned.

The bill sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman Alexander Grannis, chairman of the Insurance Committee, would have required all restaurants to be smoke-free - except in bar areas. A smoking area could be created if it was placed in a separate, ventilated room.

With lobbyists from the restaurant and tobacco industry looking on, the bill fell one vote short Tuesday at vote in the Assembly Health Committee. The Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Owners Association, which is opposed to the Grannis bill, was coincidentally in Albany when the legislation came up for a vote Tuesday for an annual lobbying day.

"This was a big win for the tobacco industry. These legislators voted for big tobacco against the public health," Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group said.

It is unusual for a bill sponsored by a powerful committee chairman like Grannis to fail in committee and not get to the full Assembly for a vote.

"Tobacco bills have always been difficult," Grannis said Tuesday. "Why did this happen? I don't know ... but from a public health standpoint it's disappointing."

Democrats Darryl Towns of Brooklyn, James Gary Pretlow of Westchester County, and Gloria Davis and Roberto Ramirez, both of the Bronx, joined Republican lawmakers in voting against the Grannis bill.

All four Democrats hail from regions in the state that already have stricter local laws in place than the state legislation and would have been unaffected by the state law.

Pretlow and Davis both said they had heard complaints from restaurant owners in their districts about the drag the anti-smoking legislation had placed on business.

"Supporters say it's a good thing for restaurant business," Pretlow said. "If it's such a good thing for restaurants, why aren't they banning smoking on their own?"

Davis said that as a former smoker, "I cannot be a hypocrite."

She said she has consistently voted against anti-smoking legislation on the belief that tobacco farmers should receive subsidies if their business is to be banned.

"I have not been lobbied heavily by the restaurant or tobacco industry. I have been lobbied heavier by the other side," Davis said, noting that she had been handed a paper by the Coalition for a Health New York urging approval of the bill as she entered the committee meeting.

Scott Wexler, spokesman for the restaurant and tavern owners group, said members had been lobbying against the Grannis bill for some time.

"This just happened to be our lobbying day," Wexler said. "There is no quid pro quo."

He said the group is not so far apart from Grannis, and that it would support installing ventilation systems in smoking areas - but could not support having the smoking areas placed in entirely separate rooms.

Ramirez and Towns did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

AP-ES-05-20-98 0019EDT<

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