“What better way to spread health and good cheer this time of year than passing this legislation to make Michigan workplaces smoke free,” Basham said.

The House passed the legislation last spring and the Senate passed a substitute to the house’s version with a 24-13 vote Thursday. The House concurred with the Senate’s bill, and it was sent to the governor’s desk.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s spokeswoman Megan Brown said the governor is expected to sign the bill.

The Republican-led Senate passed a smoking ban without exemptions last year, and the Democratic-led House passed a ban exempting casinos. Because the two houses could not come to an agreement, the legislation could not go forward.

State Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, said he is glad the two houses finally were able to compromise.

“It’s past due,” Jelinek said. “I voted for a total ban (without any exemptions) a year or so ago and that was my preference, but we knew that this time around we had to work to get an agreement.”

With the passage of this legislation, Michigan becomes the 38th state to pass some type of public smoking ban, said state Rep. Lee Gonzales, D-Flint Twp., who sponsored the bill in the House.

The legislation will ban smoking in 99 percent of workplaces and is a fair compromise, Gonzales said.

“Nothing good comes easy and this is a victory for public health,” Gonzales said. “I am pretty pleased that the negotiations didn’t go up in smoke.”

But executive director of the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association Lance Binoniemi said the legislation would be economically detrimental.

“We think this is going to mean some major loss of revenue of our businesses,” he said. “It’s going to really affect your small family-owned bars that do have a customer base that likes to smoke.”

Binoniemi said it was unfair to grant exemption to certain hospitality businesses.

Joe Bell, the owner of The Peanut Barrel Restaurant, 521 E. Grand River Ave., said he was unsure how it would affect business.

“Some people will like it, some people won’t,” Bell said. “We have a fair amount of smokers who come here but we also have a fair amount of people who don’t come here because of the smokers.”

Political science freshman Katherine Zerwas said she smokes socially but still thinks smoke disrupts a meal.

“If it’s possible to have smoking and nonsmoking, it’s a better option,” she said. “But I think people can suck it up for an hour and not smoke while they’re eating.”