Senator Kane Critical of Attempt to Expand Smoking Ban to Self-Employed Individuals
March 28, 2011The legislature’s Public Health Committee today voted favorably upon a bill which expands the state’s smoking in the workplace ban to prevent self-employed individuals from smoking in their office in a leased building.
The ban would apply irrespective of whether or not that self-employed person has employees.
Republican Sen. Rob Kane, a Public Health Committee member, said the bill intrudes on the rights of small business owners.
“I don’t believe that we should be mandating who can do what with their personal freedoms,” Kane said. “With this bill, we are telling Connecticut’s self-employed small business owners that even if they have no employees, they can’t smoke in their own offices. It is not the role of government to decide these things. And how would state government enforce this measure if it becomes state law?”
The bill now heads for a vote by the full General Assembly.
More information: Bill 948 “An Act Concerning Smoking in Workplaces”