Statewide Smoke-Free Air will be introduced as stand-alone legislation. Lead sponsors are Rep. Richards, Rep. Ott, Sen. Risser and Sen. Ellis. There is a memo circulating among legislators asking them to co-sponsor legislation to make Wisconsin smoke-free. The deadline for co-sponsorship is end of business Wednesday.
The Lead Sponsors have a committement to move this legislation along very quickly. They are hoping to introduce it into both houses before the State Budget is finalized. This means they are shooting for each house to take it up sometime in May.
ALSO, the Smoke-Free Air Bill is STILL in the Budget. As it stands right now, the language is very similar to the stand-along bill. Lawmakers are hoping that the Budget will be ready to be voted upon before the end of June.
If you want to know who your lawmaker is, visit: www.legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx
I will try to update everyone on smoke-free air as often as I can. This will be moving very quickly in the next few weeks.
For the most up-to-date information or to learn more about what you can do, visit http://www.smokefreewi.org/ or http://www.holdingourbreathwi.com/.
On a side note, I had posted last week that the Tobacco Program Funding was restored into the Budget. Here are a few more details:
*Tobacco Prevention and Control will have $30.5 million allocated to it over the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
*The restored $1.8 million will be placed into the 2009 year. Therefore, 2010 will be operating on a $900,000 cut when compared to 2008 funding levels.
*The word is not final on if the restored funding will STAY in the Budget. Now that the Joint Finance Committee has voted on it, this piece of the Budget will go to the Senate and then to the Assembly.
Visit the Legislature's home page http://www.legis.state.wi.us/ to search for details on the Budget process.
And as always, contact me with questions.
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