DES MOINES - Republicans lawmakers said Tuesday they will offer exemptions for bars and most family farms to a proposed statewide smoking ban, even though House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy predicted the changes would be dead on arrival.

The GOP amendments would exempt bars and family farm corporations from having to go smoke-free, said House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City.

The public smoking bill, as written, prohibits smoking in almost all public places and businesses except casinos and private veterans' hall events.

House Democrats said a vote on the smoking ban could come as early as Thursday.

"The reason why the Democrats are exempting the casinos is because they know that if you don't exempt the casinos, the state is going to lose money," Rants said. "They don't want to see our revenue go down."

Rants predicted smokers would flock to casinos if the current smoking ban were enacted, destroying local taverns' sales in the process. The proposed exemption would protect local bar-owners' business, Rants said.

"I think it's terribly hypocritical, terribly hypocritical for these legislators to be doing everything it takes to protect the state's revenue, but say to (heck) with the revenue of the bar owner," Rants said.

The non-partisan Legislative Services Agency estimates $268 million in gambling revenue will be pumped into the state's coffers this year. That figure represents roughly 4 percent of the state's overall budget.

Republicans also will try to scale back the bill's current prohibition on smoking within 50-feet of a public building. In many cases, that perimeter extends beyond the property lines of the would-be smoke-free facility, Rants said.

While not all House GOP members support the exemptions, which were discussed during a closed-door meeting Tuesday, Rants said he thinks some Democrats will be supportive of the changes.

But House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, said the Republican amendments will almost certainly never see the light of day.

Democrats, so far, have not had trouble rounding up support for the ban, McCarthy said. As a result, the Republican exemptions -- which would theoretically make the bill more palatable to lawmakers -- would be moot.

"I don't think that we would need it to get to 51 votes," McCarthy said, referring to the minimum number of "yes" votes needed to approve a bill in the 100-member chamber.

Democrats estimate that 99 percent of Iowa's workforce would be protected from carcinogenic second-hand smoke under the current proposal. Tacking on additional exemptions to the statewide ban would defeat the purpose of the bill, McCarthy said.

"That would put thousands of Iowa workers at risk," McCarthy said.

Contact Whitney Woodward at (515) 243-0138 or whitney.woodward@gmail.com.