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The Smokefree Air for Everyone coalition for
La Crosse County, or SAFE, has drafted a county ordinance banning smoking in all workplaces and public places, including bars and bowling alleys. The ordinance will be proposed at the La Crosse County Health and Human Services Board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Sue Lynch, a community organizer who works on ordinances for Smokefree Wisconsin, said Sharon Hampson, the board’s chairwoman, will introduce the ordinance. Lynch said she expects the board to approve the proposal and send it to the full county board for a public hearing.
“The time for this county ordinance is now, not eventually,” Lynch said. “Our timetable is we’d like to see all of La Crosse County smoke free after the first of the year.”
Lynch said the coalition has been collecting signatures on petitions throughout the county supporting an ordinance.
“There is growing support for this legislation, which has encouraged us to move in a more timely manner,” she said.
If the La Crosse County Board passes the ordinance, each city and village in the county would have to approve their own ordinance for it to become effective in their own municipalities. Cities of
La Crosse and Onalaska and the villages of Holmen, West Salem and Bangor can opt out of the ordinance under Wisconsin’s home rule law.
Lynch said the county shouldn’t wait for a state law.
“We heard we’d get a state law last year, but it didn’t happen,” she said. “We should be setting the pace and be one of the leaders in Wisconsin.”
Dane County recently adopted a smoke-free workplace ordinance that goes into effect next August. “We’d like to be the first county in the state to have an ordinance take effect,” Lynch said.
Eight Wisconsin communities, including Madison and Eau Claire, have passed comprehensive smoke-free ordinances, and 35 restrict smoking in some capacity. Twenty-four states, including Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa, have passed statewide smoke-free laws.
Dave Parisey, owner of the Popcorn Tavern and president of the La Crosse County Tavern League, said a smoke-free law is not a matter of health but a business issue.
“I don’t care what anyone says, these laws are harmful to other businesses and makes some others marginal,” Parisey said. “We couldn’t do anything worse for the economy right now. We gave in to the anti-smoking people and allowed no smoking in restaurants.”
He expects some states will return to allowing smoking in bars when businesses fail, he said.
Research on tax revenue for bars in some states has shown an increase in business after smoke-free workplace legislation passed, Lynch said.
Pete Madland, executive director of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, said the tavern league will continue its grassroots lobby to oppose a state law.
“It’s also a freedom of choice issue for businesses to run their businesses as they see fit and let the marketplace decide,” Madland said.
Madland said the tavern league favors a smoke-free workplace law exempting bars and bar areas in restaurants. Lynch said smoke-free workplace legislation is supported by major health organizations and the Wisconsin Restaurant Association.
Doug Mormann, director of the La Crosse County Health Department, said smoke-free legislation is needed to protect workers and the public’s health because the surgeon general has determined that there is no safe level of tobacco exposure in a public place.
“Some of our workers do not work in as safe as environments as their fellow workers in Minnesota and Iowa,” Mormann said.
