HARRISBURG -- After a year of political bickering, the General Assembly is moving closer to enacting a smoking ban for most public places and work places in Pennsylvania.

A six-member, House-Senate committee voted 5-1 today in favor of a compromise smoke-free measure drafted by Sen. Charles McIlhinney, R-Bucks.

It would permit smoking on up to 25 percent of a casino floor, in private membership clubs that are at least 10 years old, in cigar bars, in 25 percent of motel/hotel rooms, in private homes, in tobacco shops and manufacturing facilities and in smaller "mom and pop" taverns where food sales don't exceed 20 percent of total revenue.

"It's not perfect, it's a compromise," said Mr. McIlhinney.

Rep. Bob Belfanti, D-Northumberland, said the bill went too far in banning smoking but he voted for it anyway. He said too much time has been spent on this issue without coming up with something.

"I'm going to take a real hit from many people in my district," who don't want the state to tell them where they can smoke, he said.

"This will ban smoking in 95 percent of businesses, such as the corner deli, donut shops where retirees and other senior citizens like to smoke and drink coffee, in most restaurants, nightclubs and bingo establishments," and at privately owned businesses and companies, he said. "I've had Catholic priests tell me to vote against this bill because it will hurt bingo establishments."

Sens. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, and Rep. Michael Gerber, D-Montgomery, voted for the bill even though they wanted a more restrictive measure. Mr. Greenleaf said he's been trying to limit or eliminate second-hand smoke (which has been linked to cancer) from workplaces since 1993 and this bill is a major step in the right direction, though it doesn't go as far as he'd like.

The lone vote against the bill was from Sen. Bob Mellow, D-Lackawanna. The bill "grandfathers in" a year-old Philadelphia smoke-free law, meaning Philly can keep its law in its present form. Mr. Mellow wanted to allow Allegheny County and the city of Scranton to enact their own smoking bans, but that move was defeated.

"We're all sitting around here as if we were singing Kumbaya and we're ignoring the second largest county in the state, with 1.4 million people. We're telling the people of Allegheny County to go to hell. I've never seen anything like this,'' Mr. Mellow said.

The two casinos to be built in Philadelphia cannot have any smoking, however, because casino smoking is banned in the Philadelphia smoke-free ordinance. The other casinos in the state, including the Meadows and Don Barden's casino on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, can have smoking on part of their casino floors.

Allegheny County had enacted its own anti-smoking law but it was struck down in court. Only Philadelphia is, by a state law from the 1930s, allowed to enact its own smoking law.

The Senate is expected to act on the bill as early as tomorrow. Then it will go to the House. Steve Crawford, an aide to Gov. Ed Rendell, urged both chambers to approve the law.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.