Oklahoma Senate OKs Rebate Program for Smoking Rooms

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma restaurants that created separately ventilated smoking rooms would get a rebate to convert them to smoke-free under a bill approved in the Oklahoma Senate.

The Senate on Tuesday voted 38-8 for the Clean Air in Restaurants Act.

The voluntary program authorizes the State Department of Health to implement the rebate program. It would allow restaurants to recoup 50 percent of the original expenditure, minus depreciation costs, if it converts to a smoke-free restaurant by January 2013.

The bill directs the Health Department to fund the program using money from the Tobacco Use Reduction Fund, a revolving fund that includes money from the state's tobacco tax.

House Bill 2774 now returns to the House.