Seven bills would deal with North Carolina's signature crop.
The ones most likely to pass deal with where you can smoke.
One bill would prohibit smoking in state and local government buildings. Another bill would outlaw smoking in state-owned vehicles. A third bill is both more discretionary and more expansive, allowing community colleges to prohibit all tobacco products — including chew — on campus.
All three have multiple sponsors and companion bills.
A House bill, meantime, would study whether smoking should be prohibited in foster care homes.
Two other House bills would affect Big Tobacco's bottom line, but the odds area against them.
One bill would increase the state cigarette tax 75 cents per pack — far above Gov. Mike Easley's proposed 20-cent hike and in line with an anti-smoking campaign's push. Another bill would repeal manufacturing tax credits related to exported cigarettes.
Neither has a companion in the Senate.
Only one piece of legislation is relatively friendly to the tobacco industry, and that's not saying much.
That bill, filed by Burlington Republican Rep. Cary Allred, would allow school districts to choose whether to go tobacco-free, essentially undoing an Aug. 1 mandate created by a 2007 bill.
But the bill is not likely to go far any time soon, although it passed a first reading. It has only one sponsor, and there is no companion bill in the Senate.
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