Lawmakers finally approved a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants Monday after weeks of negotiations that ultimately strengthened the law by limiting relief for small-business owners who feared the ban would put them out of business.

The House of Delegates voted 100-40 to approve the compromise reached by House and Senate negotiators late last week. The ban will become effective statewide Feb. 1, 2008, and will replace all existing local bans.

“I think it was a fair compromise,” said Del. Derek Davis, D-Prince George’s, chair of the House committee that considered the bill. “Was it a perfect bill? No. But there has to be give and take.”

The compromise eliminated exemptions for private civic and fraternal clubs, and required the state health department to craft regulations for granting hardship waivers that will now expire in 2011. Local health departments will be responsible for reviewing and approving waiver applications.

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Both the House and Senate versions of the bill allowed small businesses to apply for hardship waivers but did not put a time limit on the waiver application. The Senate bill would have given local health departments the authority to both define hardship and grant waivers.

Senators initially approved exemptions for small private clubs such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, arguing that the organizations often serve as the principal social forum in rural areas.

House Minority Leader Anthony O’Donnell, R-St. Mary’s, called the bill “flawed” during debate on the House floor earlier this session, and said the compromise bill was just as imperfect.

O’Donnell said his biggest objection was the lack of specifics about what qualifies as a hardship waiver. O’Donnell and some other Republicans, including Del. Sonny Minnick, D-Baltimore County, argued that a ban on smoking was misplaced.

“This is a legal product and it should be legal to use,” O’Donnell said. “If it’s so bad, why aren’t the proponents working to ban the sale of tobacco in Maryland?”

stracy@baltimoreexaminer.com