The first assault on the popular and effective workplace smoking is launched

With the start of the 96th Michigan Legislature two weeks ago, the assault on the popular and effective workplace smoking ban has already begun.

Like the last legislative session, Rep. Doug Geiss, D-Taylor, reintroduced a bill to weaken the popular smoking ban that went into effect on May 1. The bill he reintroduced would turn back the clock to ineffective smoking sections, and the bill would allow bars to have “legal smoking rooms.”

Geiss introduced House Bill 4127 on Thursday, and it was referred to the House Committee on Regulatory Reform where it is awaiting action.

This is the same bill he tried last session that died in committee, but two facts stand in the way of passage this time around: the first is that at the beginning of the year, the U.S. Navy Submarine force, with the most sophisticated air exchange and purification system in the world, announced that it will ban all smoking on its submarine fleet because there are unacceptable levels of secondhand smoke in the atmosphere of a submerged submarine, and last month the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report that said “just inhaling smoke from someone else's cigarette could be enough to cause a heart attack and even death.”

The fact that the smoking ban actually increased business in bars and restaurants, as evidenced by sales tax collections in restaurants and bars that were up 2.84 percent over last year, was just a bonus.

Geiss and bar owners tried to sneak this past the many supporters of the ban with a stealth campaign, but supporters caught wind of it and flooded the committee hearing room last November leading the committee chair not to take it up.

Despite the huge turnover in the Legislature because of term limits, there are 10 members of the Regulatory Reform Committee who were in the House when the bill making the smoking bill law was approved in December 2009. Of those 10, six voted for the ban, including the chair of the committee, Rep. Hugh Crawford, R-Novi.

Based on that, I don’t see this bill as having much of a chance, but based on past experience, vigilance is the word.

This probably will not be the only and last assault on the ban that took years of hard work to enact, and the pro-smoking lobby is hoping a new Republican Governor and Republican control of the Michigan House and Senate can win exceptions or kill the popular, bipartisan workplace smoking ban.

The Michigan Licensed Beverage Association (MLBA), notorious for using false and debunked information to try and make its case, is again pushing hard to undo the ban.

We need to fight back with the facts.

Supporters of smoking ban kill attempt to weaken it

LANSING -- The members of the Tobacco Free Michigan Coalition proved that calls, letters and emails to their lawmakers work.

On Wednesday the House Regulatory Reform Committee met to stealthy take up House Bill 5803 that would have rolled back the hard fought and hard won workplace smoking ban. The coalition somehow learned that this bill would be taken up, and it urged its members with an email alert late Tuesday evening to contact the members of the committee and tell them not to take up this bill.

When I got to the hearing room at noon on Wednesday, it was packed with supporters of the ban and apparently bar owners. The agenda, even on the day of the hearing, simply said "Agenda to be announced." every committee meeting I have ever seen has the bills listed it will consider, and at the bottom is the throw away line that says "any other matters to come before the committee."

Obviously, the bill sponsor, Rep. Doug Geiss, D-Taylor, knew the bill was going to be taken up because he packed the room with bar owners. Fortunately, the supporters of the ban found out about it and derailed it.

As soon as the meeting began, the committee chair said he knew that so many people were here for the smoking issue, but he was not going to take up the bill. With that, Geiss got up and left, followed by the entire right side of the room.

Since I had no idea what they were taking up, I followed them. There was not room in the first elevator, so as I waited for second, elevator, I listened, with clinched teeth, as they vented with the same old debunked crap.

Once in the lobby of the House Office Building, Geiss was huddled with the bar owners. This bears watching, but I see little chance of it getting traction with just three session days left, at least in the Senate.

Bill in committee attempts to turn back the clock on the workplace smoking bill

It appears that the House Regulatory Reform Committee is going to consider a bill similar to the “pay to kill” compromise on Wednesday that the Conference Committee soundly rejected back in December 2008 that that will weaken the newly passed workplace smoking ban.

Tobacco Free Michigan issued an urgent alert late this afternoon that the Committee will take up House Bill 5803, sponsored by Rep. Doug Geiss, D-Taylor, that will take us back to the unhealthy way things were prior to May 1 when the workplace smoking ban went into effect with “legal smoking rooms.”

The bill will take us back to smoking sections, as long as the space is completely enclosed and it has a “separate ventilation or air filtration system designed to remove smoke from the air in the room and prevent smoke from infiltrating into the nonsmoking areas.”

Ironically, when the very same committee was taking testimony on the workplace smoking ban back in March 2009, Dr. Greg Holzman, the medical officer from the Michigan Department of Community Health (DCH), testified that there has been no ventilation system that clears out secondhand smoke, and that there is no safe amount of secondhand smoke.

Not only that, but back in April the U.S. Navy announced that it will ban all smoking on its submarine fleet by the end of the year, saying “Recent testing has proven that, despite our atmosphere purification technology, there are unacceptable levels of secondhand smoke in the atmosphere of a submerged submarine.”

Submarines have the most sophisticated air purification system ever invented, and it banned smoking. What bar or restaurant can equal that kind of technology?

The committee will meet at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 10 in room 326 of the Anderson House Office Building, in downtown Lansing. The meetings are open to the public, so please show up to show your support for keeping the smoking ban intact.

This had to be a last minute thing because there is no agenda listed for the committee, like every other committee. This bill has little chance of becoming law. It has to pass the committee, be approved by the House and then go through the same process in the Senate.

The Senate is unlikely to take it up, because the Senate Majority Leader is taking next month off, and there is no lame duck session.Regardless, contact Geiss to let him know how anti-health the bill is. He can be reached at:
Phone: 517-373-0852
Fax: 517-373-5934
Email: douglasageiss@house.mi.gov

If you can’t make the hearing, contact the members of the Regulatory Reform Committee to tell them to reject this attempt to weaken the smoking ban:

Chair Rep. Bert Johnson
Phone: (517) 373-0144Fax: (517) 373-8929
Email: bertjohnson@house.mi.gov

Vice-Chair Rep. Harold Haugh
Phone: (517) 373-0854Fax: (517) 373-5911
Email: HaroldHaugh@house.mi.gov

Rep. Pam Byrnes
Phone: (517) 373-0828Fax: (517) 373-5783
Email: pambyrnes@house.mi.gov

Rep. Tim Melton
Phone: (517) 373-0475Fax: (517) 373-5061
Email: timmelton@house.mi.gov

Rep. Bettie Cook Scott
Phone: (517) 373-1776Fax: (517) 373-8502
Email: bettiecookscott@house.mi.gov

Rep. Woodrow Stanley
Phone: (517) 373-8808Fax: (517) 373-5997
Email: WoodrowStanley@house.mi.gov

Rep. Jon M. Switalski
Phone: (517) 373-1772Fax: (517) 373-5906
Email: JonSwitalski@house.mi.gov

Rep.Tory Rocca
Phone: (517) 373-7768
Email: ToryRocca@house.mi.gov

Rep. Hugh Crawford
Phone: (517) 373-0827
Email: HughCrawford@house.mi.gov

Rep. Rick Jones
Phone: (517) 373-0853
Email: RickJones@house.mi.gov

Rep. Jim Stamas
Phone: (517) 373-1791
Email: JimStamas@house.mi.gov

House Committee considering stripping legal ads from newspapers

LANSING -- Weekly and daily newspapers struggling to survive could be dealt a deathblow if they lose legal ads that are a steady source of ad revenue, and that could happen under a package of bills the House Judiciary Committee is considering.

The Committee took testimony on Wednesday on a package of bills that would allow local governments to post the ads on their web sites or on their public access cable TV channels. The law requires the municipality to post notices of meetings and ordinances in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality in order to keep the public informed and for a permanent record. Some new ordinances can be very long, and depending on the newspaper’s ad rate, it can be expensive.

The Judiciary Committee took testimony on two packages so bills, but they did not act on them. Rep. Pam Byrnes, D-Chelsea, was the primary sponsor of a three-bill package – House Bills 5845, 4847 and 5847, that would create a definition of a newspaper and only allow a very limited use of alternative publishing for governmental notices where appropriate newspapers were not available.

Rep. Doug Geiss, D-Taylor, is the main sponsor of another package that includes HB 5916-5917 and HB 5848 and 5853. That package gives local clerks more leeway to use the Internet, cable TV and other means for official posting.

“The heart and soul of legal notices is government transparency, and we take that very seriously,” said Rep. Rebekak Warren, D-Ann Arbor. “That’s where the future of communications going and the devil is in the details.”

A long line of local government officials testified in favor of the bills, saying how much it costs them to place the ads. However, a few local newspaper editors and members of the Michigan Press Association (MPA) did testify against the bills. Their position is that newspapers are more independent than a government web site, and publication in newspapers creates a permanent record that can be verified.

Although no vote was taken, the committee seemed to be leaning toward allowing legal notices to be published by the local government, but not everyone was 100 percent convinced.

“I was must be very old fashioned because I don’t have cable, and I consider myself an informed citizen because I read the newspaper,” said Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker, R- Mattawan. “A concern of mine is; when do we stop. Would we allow this for court notices and foreclosure notices?"

The committee haring lasted almost three hours, and there were still people waiting to testify. Committee Chair Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, said more testimony would be taken at the next hearing date next week.

Youtube ad shows why Brandana is the best candidate for the 22nd District

ROMULUS – Knocking on doors in near 90 degree weather for almost five hours is not my idea of a fun way to spend a day off, but keeping a Democratic majority in the Michigan House of Representatives and putting the best Democrat there is worth it.

I walked for Jill Brandana , one of the Democratic candidates for the open seat in the 22nd District that represents the Downriver cites of Romolus and Taylor. She is a solid Democrat who will represent the district well.

She holds a master's degree in public administration from the University of Michigan, and she is currently serving as the Chairwoman Pro-Tem of the Taylor City Council. She is running against fellow Taylor City Councilman Doug Geiss for the Democratic nomination. Now, Geiss seems to have all of the qualifications for the job, but I believe Brandana is the best candidate. A recent statement he made regarding the controversial new runway proposed for Detroit Metropolitan Airport makes my decision easier.

It’s obviously a hot issue for Romulus residents, as well as Taylor residents, but a master improvement plan that includes a 10,000-foot landing strip will displace business, schools and up to 800 homes in Romulus.

There have been numerous town hall meetings on the issue, and at a meeting in Romulus on March 3, in response to a question from a Romulus on whether Taylor would provide financial help to fight the expansion, Geiss said yes, to loud applause from the crowd.

Just a month later at a Taylor City Council meeting, a resident objected to Taylor tax dollars being spent in Romulus, and Geiss said that would not happen and then said that he never made the remark on March 3.

The Brandana campaign has put an excellent ad together on it that can be seen on Youtube. Some might call this a negative ad, but I find it hard to call pointing out someone’s own inconstancies to them a negative ad. Now, if you were to compare Geiss to Brittany Spears or Paris Hilton, that’s another story.

Vote for Jill Brandana on Tuesday and in November.