Smoking ban issues could be on ballot in St. Charles County

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) -- Whether St. Charles County joins the growing list of St. Louis-area places that ban smoking may be up to the voters to decide.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Republican county councilman Joe Cronin wants a vote of the people on the smoking ban, and on a second issue related to smoking: whether casinos should be excluded from any smoking bans.

The seven-member council on Monday will decide if the measures should be placed on the ballot next November.

"This effectively lets the two separate, but related, issues be decided by the voters based on their merits," Cronin said in an email Thursday to other council members.

St. Louis city and county recently implemented smoking bans, as have some smaller municipalities, including O'Fallon and Lake St. Louis in St. Charles County.

In May, the council voted 4-2 with one opponent absent for Cronin's previous proposal for a smoking ban that exempted Ameristar Casino in St. Charles. But a month later, county Executive Steve Ehlmann, also a Republican, blocked that ban from the ballot because he said it had too many exemptions. He said he will likely allow the new measures to go forward.

But Ehlmann said that although he probably wouldn't block the casino exemption amendment from the ballot, he doesn't favor its passage. "I hope people have more sense than to create that exemption," he said.

Each measure would need a simple majority approval by voters at the November 2012 general election.

Joe Brazil, a Republican and chairman of the council, opposes Cronin's new measures just as he did the earlier one.

"You're telling businesses how to run their businesses," he said. And, he said the ban would be unfair to veterans groups with some members who are longtime smokers.

Stacy Reliford, an American Cancer Society official active in a regional anti-smoking coalition, called Cronin's proposals promising. She said the coalition remains opposed to an exemption for casinos.

Ameristar has opposed government-imposed smoking bans.

County Council members who favor exempting Ameristar worry that some of the casino's jobs could be in jeopardy if smoking is banned there while smoking is allowed at the competing Harrah's casino, nearby in St. Louis County.

Cronin said his new casino measure would exempt Ameristar's gambling floors only if existing exemptions for Harrah's and other casinos in St. Louis County and St. Louis remain in effect.

Cronin's bills would cover unincorporated areas and cities in St. Charles County.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com