Public Support for KY State-Wide Smoking Ban Rises

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A new poll shows more than half of Kentuckians interviewed last fall support a state law to ban smoking in indoor public places. The poll from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati finds about 6 out of 10 would support such a ban. That’s up from fewer than half of those polled in 2010.  However, the measure isn’t getting much political support because so much of the region depends on tobacco farming.

If such a bill were to go to the floor in this General Assembly session, Sen. Whitney Westerfield and Rep. Myron Dossett tell the Kentucky New Era they’d vote against it. But a vote doesn’t seem likely because of larger issues such as pension reform, tax reform and redistricting. Dossett also says a state-wide smoking ban would damage tobacco taxes, a major source of state revenue.