Evanston is in the throes of a healthy debate over whether to ban smoking in all public places in the city. Public health advocates are lobbying for the prohibition, a number of restaurants are raising cautions that it will hurt their business. This page has generally been skeptical about the wisdom of government imposing such a ban, rather than allowing restaurants to decide what their own environment should be.
There’s an odd fact of life in Illinois, though. Evanston is one of the few communities that can even have such a debate about smoking rules.
By state law, only 20 municipalities can set their own strict smoking policy. Evanston is one of the 20. So is Chicago. Also on the list are Wilmette and Skokie, where officials within the last year passed smoking bans, and Arlington Heights, which rejected tougher smoking restrictions this year.
As for the nearly 1,300 municipalities in the rest of Illinois, forget it. They have no choice but to accept the state’s public smoking restrictions set by law in 1989.
The Illinois Clean Indoor Air Act allows smoking in public places, as long as it’s confined to designated smoking areas. The law also barred local authorities from passing more restrictive local smoking ordinances, even if they’re “home rule” communities with wide powers to govern themselves. The 20 towns were grandfathered in because they had smoking ordinances before the 1989 law.
Rep. Carolyn Krause, a Republican and former mayor of Mt. Prospect, has introduced a bill to restore local control. It would allow local governments to adopt smoking ordinances that are tougher than the state’s law.
Smoking rules are inherently controversial. When village or city officials broach the topic, they’re sure to hear loud jeers as well as cheers. It’s a tough call, pitting health against economic concerns. The record among municipalities that have considered stricter local ordinances in the last year has been split.
Though we have dubious view of the local laws, there seems to be no compelling reason for a statewide, top-down control of smoking. Just as communities can vote themselves dry, bar handguns or install speed bumps, they ought to have the ability to make decisions on whether to allow people to light up in public.
