Society

Public Support for KY State-Wide Smoking Ban Rises

WKMS | By Todd Hatton,

Published January 8, 2013 at 9:04 AM CST

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.

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Todd Hatton

Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.

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Whitney Jones

Whitney grew up listening to Car Talk to and from her family’s beach vacation each year, but it wasn’t until a friend introduced her to This American Life that radio really grabbed her attention. She is a recent graduate from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., where she studied journalism. When she’s not at WKMS, you can find her working on her backyard compost pile and garden, getting lost on her bicycle or crocheting one massive blanket.

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