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OUR CITY COUNCIL PUFFS UP ON SMOKING BANS

By Terry Gray

          A Louisville smoking ban is in the works again.  With the Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision to allow the ban in Lexington, Louisville made its intentions known immediately, though those councilmen now in favor of a ban refuse to admit that their decision is based on Lexington’s “progress”.

          Before I go on, I have to make it clear that I’m on the streets speaking with Louisvillians every day concerning many issues.  The issue of smoking bans rears its head now and then in our conversations on the state of affairs in Louisville and in America in general.  I have yet to speak with anyone who is for a ban.

          Many people do not care one way or another if other people smoke in public places.  Though apathy does nothing to promote freedom, neither does apathy scream for legislation.  I find it hard to understand how the city council can justify legislation in the face of an issue that is essentially a non-issue.

          The Louisville Smoke Free Coalition receives hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote smoking bans in Louisville, courtesy of the Board of Health.  You may have heard the radio commercials.  The Board of Health receives its money courtesy of tobacco settlement money taken from tobacco companies.  Tobacco companies receive their money courtesy of smokers.  In essence, smokers pay the Louisville Smoke Free Coalition to fight to keep them from smoking in privately owned public buildings, even should they own the building.  How can this not be a direct violation of our 4^th amendment?  Our 5^th amendment guarantees us that we may not be “…deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”  Shouldn’t laws be just laws, not based on subjective interpretations of protection? 

          In Lexington, as in other cities that have imposed smoking bans, the enforcement of those bans has been delegated to the Board of Health.  So instead of the Board of Health spending our money on health issues, they take on the role of smoke police.  Further, hot-lines have been established allowing “concerned citizens” to call in anonymous complaints about establishments where smoking “may be” occurring.  Our 6^th amendment guarantees a citizen his right “…to be confronted with the witnesses against him...”

A seven judge panel of the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the ban 6 to 1.  The dissent came from Supreme Court Justice William Graves who said, "The actions of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government are comparable to those in centrally-planned economies where property tends to be managed by the state and government officials decide how to use those resources."

With the court’s decision, I have to question if private property has been seized for public use without fair compensation, a violation of our 5^th amendment.

We have now shifted the suffering from the anti-smokers who were “forced” to eat in a smoking environment to the wage earners that depend upon incomes derived from the hospitality industry.  Every city that has imposed a smoking ban has witnessed negative economics associated with those bans and the cost being shouldered by our businesses and their employees.

Other businesses not recognized as having a direct association with the hospitality industry have suffered as well.  Wholesalers of paper products, alcohol, matches, juke boxes, plates and silverware -- they suffer too, with the end result being legislated economic loss.  With the loss of revenue for businesses comes the loss of income for employees.  With job losses come general losses to our overall economy.

Not only will free enterprise suffer because of smoking bans, freedom in general will suffer through the establishment of ever more oppressing laws.  How much longer will be able to stand up and proudly say, “I am an American and I’m free?”

Terry Gray

Republican Candidate

Kentucky House of Representatives

District 38

Paid for by Terry Gray

Terry Gray 

Kentucky House of Representatives

District 38 Candidate - 2004

www.terrygray.net

Paid for by Terry Gray

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