July 2006

Libertarians Help Bring Down St. Louis Smoking Ban (Again)

By Darla Maloney

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I'm pleased to report that Libertarian Party activists played an important role in successfully putting pressure on the St. Louis County Council to abandon efforts to impose a smoking ban. Last week, Councilman Odenwald (R) introduced his second attempt in as many years to ban smoking in all privately owned businesses. This time, he exempted only casinos.

Over the weekend, local LP activists worked to get a strong turnout of restaurant and bar owners to the County Council meeting. Working with other issue advocates in the area, we made phone calls and spent an evening of bar hopping and distributing pamphlets.

Our efforts paid off. At the Council meeting, small-business owners who opposed the ban outnumbered the anti-smoking activists. In addition to the business owners, economist Michael Pakko and I each had an opportunity to address the Council: Dr. Pakko spoke about property rights and economic efficiency, suggesting that a signage ordinance might be a more efficient approach than a ban. Several bar owners made similar suggestions. I used the opportunity to discuss the political consequences of voting for a smoking ban. I compared the issue to eminent domain and related it to the recent ousting of incumbents in Ballwin (smoking ban) and Sunset Hills (eminent domain). Also attending the meeting were Libertarians Eric Harris and Dr. Christopher Graviss.

Before and after the meeting, our members were recognized as being influential participants in the political process. We were approached by both business-owners and political operatives who acknowledged our influence on the debate.

In the end, the smoking ban proposal went down in a surprising turn of events. Odenwald had indicated that he would be introducing a substitute bill that would include bars, restaurants AND casinos. Since the substitute bill would not be voted on until next week, most people had gone home already. Odenwald made his substitution, but then Councilman O'Meara (D) stepped in to introduce Substitute #2, which had been circulated prior to the meeting by Councilman Campisi (R). Substitute #2 proposed that owners of bars, restaurants and casinos be required to post signs designating their smoking policies. Substitute #2 passed in a 4-3 vote. The smoking ban is off the table. The new ordinance, to be debated over the next two weeks, will allow business owners to set their own smoking policies, requiring only that they make those policies clear to the public.

This is an important local victory for liberty, and it demonstrates again that a strategy of working with grassroots organizations on local issues pays off in terms of both political recognition and effectiveness.