SARASOTA, Florida - May 20, 2008 - Citing the burden they place on taxpayers who pay for government workers' health insurance, Sarasota County officials announced Monday that they no longer will hire smokers.

The policy makes Sarasota County the first county in Southwest Florida to make smoking a hiring issue. Charlotte and Manatee counties do not, though Manatee has policies designed to discourage employees from smoking.

Sarasota County Administrator Jim Ley said the hiring ban came out of "a five- or six-year strategy to produce a healthier work force and manage our long-term health care costs."

The county currently pays about $31 million annually in h`ealth benefits for 3,600 employees, or $8,600 per worker.

Ley said not hiring smokers should help limit the annual growth in health care costs, the most expensive perk offered to county employees.

Patrick Reynolds, who runs Foundation for a Smoke Free America, said it is hard to gauge the popularity of such hiring policies.

They are less prevalent than smoking bans in restaurants and public places and largely dependent on state labor laws, he said.

"It's really a question of what extent the state empowers companies to refuse to hire smokers," said Reynolds, who only tracks statewide smoking policies. "We know these bans contribute to the overall goal of a smoke free America."

In Florida, government agencies that refuse to hire smokers range from the sheriff's offices in Hernando, Hillsborough and Pasco Counties to the city of Atlantic Beach.

Manatee County employees who are smokers must pay more for the best health care coverage and attend a class about smoking. The county is also exploring ways to get more people to quit, said Manatee County Administrator Ed Hunzeker.

Charlotte officials have discussed a ban on hiring smokers but the county currently does not discriminate.

"It comes up from time to time, but right now we don't ask that question," said Charlotte communications director Joyce Ross.

According to a report by the National Workrights Institute, a survey conducted in 1988 by the Administrative Management Society found that about 6,000 businesses nationwide "discriminate against off-duty smokers" and "the number has almost certainly increased since then."

Sarasota County Commissioner Nora Patterson said she has some reservations about the tobacco-free employee rule, but decided it was beneficial on balance.

"We could potentially lose some very valuable employees but all things being equal it's probably a good thing," she said.

The move not to hire smokers is the latest in a string of anti-smoking rules initiated by Sarasota County.

The county recently banned smoking on public beaches.

Sarasota County Commissioner Jon Thaxton opposed the beach smoking ban as an assault on personal freedom but supports the hiring criteria.

"I want to give people their opportunity to do what otherwise are lawful activities but this is proactive, not retroactive," he said. "Everyone will know this up front."

New hires will be asked to submit to a drug test that detects nicotine and sign a pledge promising they have not smoked in the last 12 months. Existing employees will not be affected, but they are encouraged to take advantage of free programs to help them quit.

In Florida, the right not to hire employees who smoke was upheld by a 1995 ruling of the state Supreme Court.

A job applicant sued the city of North Miami arguing that an anti-smoker policy violated her privacy.

The city argued that each smoker cost taxpayers $4,611 (in 1981 dollars) annually because of medical bills.

Some companies even extend the smoking prohibition to spouses of prospective employees.

Ley said 15 percent of the county's employees with severe illnesses account for 85 percent of the health care costs.

County officials based their decision not to hire smokers in part on a Centers for Disease Control study that said employees who smoke cost their employer about $3,400 a year in lost productivity and medical expenses.

Ed. Note: I think we should start up businesses and announce that non-smokers will not be hired under any circumstances.  Better yet, we should stage smoke-ins, where hundreds or thousands of people go onto the public beach in Sarasota and smoke cigarettes, cigars and pipes!  I am fed up with this socialistic crap that directly assaults our freedoms.  Aren’t you?  When is enough, enough?!