By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – St. Louis County's proposed smoking ban bill has been held up.
The council's Justice and Health Council were set to consider the Indoor Clean Air Act Tuesday afternoon. But the meeting was cancelled only hours before it was to take place.
Councilman Skip Mange says Harrah's Casino officials didn't like some of the wording, and neither did many bar and restaurant owners.
"This is a very tough issue," said Mange, who supports a ban. "There's a lot of emotion, a lot of concern, and a lot of fear out there. And we're just trying to put something together that we can gain a reasonable consensus on and, so far, we're not there.
"We just need to do some more work."
Mange says bringing the legislation up Tuesday without all the compromises ironed out might have doomed the smoking ban.
Mange says one change that will probably be made will allow smoking at neighborhood bars. That's defined as those that make less than 15% of their money off food sales.
But Mange says there's no question the council will debate a ban at some time: "We fully intend to bring forward a bill."