Ballot fight over smoking ban could be costly

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer

Supporters of a restaurant smoking ban say any move to go directly to voters with a ballot initiative would be a tough, expensive fight, said Clifford Chang, director of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawai'i.

The City Council killed the latest proposal to ban smoking in restaurants on O'ahu in a 5-to-4 vote Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris yesterday broke his silence on the latest smoking proposal to say he would have supported a compromise bill that further restricted smoking in restaurants.

In the past several weeks, Harris would not state his position on the bill, saying only that he was waiting to hear from the council about where its members stood. Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura said it was appropriate for the mayor to wait to see what the council would do.

"It shows the independence of the council from the administration," Yoshimura said. "His place is not to make law, that's our place."

The coalition's Chang said initial inquiries about what it would take to ask voters directly for a smoking ban are not encouraging. "They're extraordinarily expensive."

Chang said initiatives in other states have been more successful in defending existing smoking restrictions or adding taxes than in creating smoking bans.

He said the coalition will likely initiate a public-opinion poll on the matter but would be concerned that the tobacco industry would be prepared to fight the move with extensive resources and advertising.

Chang remains hopeful that the council would move forward in the smoking proposal at some point. "We honestly believe that this is an appropriate measure that the City Council should act on."

In 1995, Harris vetoed a smoking ban bill, saying that the restrictions got government involved in business where it shouldn't be. "I vetoed the first bill based on an assurance by the restaurant industry that the matter was better handled by the private sector than government," he said.

Harris said restaurants and other businesses had told him then they would police themselves, discussed filtration systems to reduce the effect of smoke on nonsmokers and other policies. "I'm unhappy that the private sector didn't deal with it as they had assured me."

Harris indicated that he had heard from the council that a compromise was alive and could have included a delayed effective date to allow restaurants time to prepare for changes. As written, the bill would have banned smoking in outdoor dining areas but allowed smoking in restaurants with bars.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.