MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin lawmakers have passed a ban on smoking in almost all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.

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The state Assembly approved the measure 61-38 Wednesday evening. The Senate passed the bill 25-8 earlier in the day.

The proposal now goes to Gov. Jim Doyle, who can sign it into law or veto it.

Doyle issued a statement saying he supports the ban. The governor said the prohibition should save lives and money that would go for health care expenses stemming from secondhand smoke.

The Assembly debated the bill for more than five hours Wednesday, and as the debate started, Assembly Republicans lashed out at the Senate for "making an unreasonable deal" with those on both sides of the issue.

"It's important that we get this right. We've already detailed the reasons. But I want to say that it's obvious to more than the majority of the people in this room that the Senate messed this up. It's our job to fix it," said Rep. Steve Kestell, R-Elkhart Lake.

The Assembly considered 25 amendments to the bill. Most of the amendments came from the Republican minority, asking for exceptions for certain establishments like private clubs and hotel rooms.

The debate also focused on casinos and including Native American properties with the ban, WISC-TV reported.

"Their employees are no different than the employees in other parts of this state -- we treat them all the same. And we're going to treat your ma' and pa' bars, my ma' and pa' bars, we're going to treat the Native American bars, the casinos -- everyone the same," said Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah.

All of the amendments were defeated, but they came from both sides of the aisle. Rep. Pedro Colon, D-Milwaukee, asked for an exception to cigar establishments.

"I think cigarettes are bad and I think kids shouldn't smoke them. I think we pay a lot of health care costs. But, in the process, what we're doing is killing cigars, and to me, that's serious," Colon said.

Much of Wednesday's smoking debate in the Senate focused on excluding hotels -- or a percentage of rooms -- from the ban. Supporters of that amendment said it will drive business to hotels in other states.

But Stephen Zanoni, the general manager of the Madison Concourse Hotel, said he thinks the local impact will be minimal.

"A lot of chains are going 100 percent smoke free -- that's been the trend in the industry. So in a lot of ways it's easier to make those changes," Zanoni said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Senate also focused how Wisconsin's consumers would react to the ban.

"The rooms that surround our state on our borders, the other states, have exact language, and this would keep us consistent. I think we don't want to punish the innkeepers that are on the borders of this state," said Sen. Jeff Plale, D-Milwaukee.

"You want to talk about border issues, you have dueling taverns, where you can smoke in one, but you can't go smoke in the other, yet I don't see us carving exemptions for the bars up along the border," said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee.

The ban would take effect in July 2010. Smokers would face fines of up to $250. Bar owners who don't try to stop smokers would get a warning and a $100 fine for a second offense.

Local governments couldn't pass any regulations stricter than the statewide ban, except for rules covering government properties such as city halls.

There are 25 states that currently have smoking bans.

Stay tuned to WISC-TV and Channel 3000 for continuing coverage.