Print edition: 
TOPEKA — Less than a week after the governor signed an indoor smoking ban into law, House committee members were considering changes to the prohibition.
House Bill 2741 would move the date when most of Kansas would go smoke-free back six months to Jan. 2, 2011, from the current July 1 date.
The bill, which had a sparsely attended, last-minute hearing Wednesday in the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, would also reduce the distances people had to be from entryways and windows to smoke at some bars to 3 feet instead of the current 10 feet.
The measure also would create an exemption for nonprofit organizations to hold cigar- or smoking-related events, such as Father H. Setter's annual fundraisers in Wichita.
The changes "would weaken the bill and reduce the public health benefit we were anticipating," said Chris Masoner of the American Cancer Society, who testified Wednesday.
Some provisions in the new bill, which was introduced on Monday by the House committee, could create more problems, he said.
Masoner pointed to a provision that would allow certain private clubs to allow indoor smoking. In the signed bill, the clubs must have held a license since Jan. 1, 2009, or earlier. The new proposal would eliminate that date, meaning new clubs would be able to allow indoor smoking.
During the hearing, some suggested chipping away at the indoor smoking ban further.
Ron Hein, lobbyist for the Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association, told lawmakers on the panel that the group would ideally like to see businesses that had created smoking areas with separate ventilation systems — such as in Wichita — be grandfathered in, meaning the ban would not apply to them right away.
He suggested those businesses have a transition period — possibly two years — so they would have a chance to recoup some of the money they invested in the separate smoking areas.
Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, said she wanted to see bars and clubs that sell lottery and keno tickets and a limited amount of food be able to allow indoor smoking.
"Places that sell the other gambling devices that Kansas sells should have the same opportunity (as state-owned casinos)," she said.
The new law includes an exemption for state-owned casinos, a discrepancy that many opponents, including Landwehr, called hypocritical.
The proposed change would help bars, especially those proximal to casinos, to compete on a level playing field, she said.
Supporters of the smoking ban didn't get everything they wanted in the signed bill, said Mary Jane Hellebust, executive director of the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition, who also testified on the bill. The answer wasn't the proposed changes though.
"We look at this bill as taking it back a step," she said.
It's not clear whether the bill will move out of committee. Lawmakers are coming up on the end of the session April 1. Most legislation is either out of its committee or will be this week.
Rep. Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, who chairs the Federal and State Affairs Committee, did not say when or if the panel might vote on the measure.
