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BISMARCK – North Dakota lawmakers appear content to allow smoking to continue in bars and truck stops and have little enthusiasm for increasing the state’s tobacco taxes to deter cigarette and smokeless [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], an Associated Press survey of legislators says.
Legislators who responded to the December survey, which was conducted by e-mail and regular mail, supported the right of local governments to impose tougher anti-smoking rules than the North Dakota Legislature itself has been willing to approve.
Since lawmakers banned smoking in most public workplaces in 2005, the Legislature has defeated proposals to abolish the law’s exemptions, which allow smoking in bars,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], tobacco shops, motel rooms designated for smokers, rooms rented for private functions, and enclosed areas of truck stops where children are not allowed.[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
The AP survey asked legislators whether they favored a statewide anti-smoking law, leaving the issue to local governments, or continuing the current practice of having a statewide law while allowing local governments to toughen it if they chose. In all, 114 of the 141 members of the North Dakota Legislature,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], or 81 percent, responded to the survey.
In the North Dakota House, 59 of the 76 representatives who replied said they preferred continuing the existing law or letting local governments handle the issue. Fourteen House members advocated a statewide policy, and three were undecided.
Twenty-nine North Dakota senators who replied to the survey favored continuing the present law or leaving the issue to local boards, while six wanted a statewide law, and three were undecided.
In 2008, North Dakota voters approved an initiative that set aside money for a new anti-tobacco agency,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], called the Center for Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy, which is independent of the state Health Department and run by an appointed board.[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
Board members drafted a five-year plan for reducing tobacco use that advocated raising North Dakota’s tobacco taxes,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], including an increase in the state tax on cigarettes from 44 cents to $2 a pack by July 2013. The plan also envisioned abolishing the exemptions to the state’s anti-smoking law and extending the smoking ban to outdoor arenas where public events are held.