Feb 8, 2007 9:51 am US/Central
Reality Check: Smoking Ban Repercussions
by Pat Kessler
(WCCO)
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Bars in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties are generating about the same revenue now as they were before the smoking ban took effect. (File)
CBS
There is already a patchwork of smoking bans here and there across Minnesota, but
this new law makes smoking illegal statewide almost anywhere in public, including your workplace.
That's especially true when your workplace is a smoky bar, but IN FACT, choking off smoking does not mean snuffing out business.
Bars and restaurants in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties -- already with smoking bans -- are generating
about the same revenue now than
before the ban.
That's according to sales tax receipts for food and liquor.
Other places with smoking bans are
seeing the same thing. In New York, Delaware and California overall business is up since a ban went down.
That's NOT THE WHOLE STORY. Angry bar owners aren't just blowing smoke about
losing business. Some drinking establishments are losing customers, or closing, because of the ban.
It's TRUE. According to state figures on
employment at bars, the number of Hennepin County bar workers
went sharply down 12.5 percent the year following the ban, then slightly up 5.1 percent the next year.
In Ramsey County, employment at bars went up the year after the ban 5.6 percent, then flattened out the following year.
Other states already
ban smoking in your own car with a child present,
on public beaches, and parks and trails and the new frontier, a
smoking ban for condominiums and town homes.
That's Reality Check.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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