The Maryland House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved Saturday a bill to ban smoking in bars and restaurants.
The House voted 98-40, mostly along party lines, to approve the ban, but the bill has some significant differences compared with the version scheduled for a vote today in the Senate. The Senate version exempts nonprofit civic and fraternal clubs, while the House version does not.
Senators gave preliminary approval to their version of the bill Friday.
Those differences must be worked out before the bill can become law.
Del. Sonny Minnick, D-Baltimore County, unsuccessfully offered an amendment during Friday afternoon?s debate on the bill that would have banned the sale of all tobacco products in the state. Minnick, who owns a small bar in Dundalk, argued a ban on tobacco would be a better way to prevent young people from starting to smoke and would save people?s lives.
On Saturday, during final debate, Minnick bemoaned the predicted fate of some of the small establishments in Baltimore City.
“When is the state of Maryland in the business of putting people out of business?” he asked. “These people have their life savings in that little bar.”
House Minority Leader Anthony O?Donnell, R-St. Mary?s, called the bill “flawed” because it did not include the Senate?s exemption for service clubs ? like the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars ? and because the bill would impact small-business owners.
“You can?t fix it, you can?t compromise it,” O?Donnell said.
