Maine: Smoking ban suffocates profits at area bars ~ and so it starts....

Kennebuc Journal ^ | February 16, 2004 | FELIX DOLIGOSA JR.

[SheLion]

[SheLion]

The Maine Lawmakers are choking the economy with the smoking bans!  Just what we don't need......more business's closing.......Thanks Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine!  Hope you sleep well at night in your cushy little beds!

[CurlyDave]

Why can't the bars become private clubs?

No need for high membership fees, and temporary guest passes available for visitors.

[SheLion]

Why can't the bars become private clubs?

The Partnership for a Healthy Maine has this covered.

As you see above, if ANY of the employees disagree with smoking, there will BE no smoking. Personally, I would kick that employee out on their ear. Let them find a smoke free place to work!

One non-smoking employee would not dictate to my business! They would be out on their ear.

[boomop1]

The lost liquor taxes must be enormous.

[abclily]

Anybody besides me suspect that many Maine lawyers are at home smoking their marijuana that they made legal?

[2banana]

In a few years, we are going to have "smoking speak-easy" bars. No tax collected for the smokes and no regulation on the businesses. A new powerful mafia will emerge (with the crime and corruption that go with it) because our government has no respect for private property...

[smokersclub]

Maine Rights:
A public yahoo group for anyone who wants to talk about the Maine smoking ban situation.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mainerights/

[SheLion]

Anybody besides me suspect that many Maine lawyers are at home smoking their marijuana that they made legal?

AMEN! I hear THAT!

[SheLion]

The lost liquor taxes must be enormous.

It will get worse.

[SheLion]

In a few years, we are going to have "smoking speak-easy" bars. No tax collected for the smokes and no regulation on the businesses. A new powerful mafia will emerge (with the crime and corruption that go with it) because our government has no respect for private property...

Your not the first one to think about this.........

[SheLion]

A public yahoo group for anyone who wants to talk about the Maine smoking ban situation.

Excellent! Thanks for posting that link!!!!

[kahoutek]

This law is one that came exclusively from a funded special interest group....funded with taxpayer money.

Vermont, for one, revised their original law.

I'm a smoker, so I lean towards the obvious, but I'm hearing gripes from non-smokers about the nanny state going too far with this.

[2banana]

Your not the first one to think about this.........

It is an obvious outcome of this insanity. I can hear the liberals now...we had such good intentions...

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
--William Pitt (Earl of Chatham), speech in the House of Lords, November 18, 1783

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."
-- C.S Lewis

[Gabz]

The Elks and American Legion say they are not aware of increased membership because of the smoking ban, but restaurant owners say many of their regular smoking customers are flocking to them.

The restaurant owners are right........a friend of mine was president of the local Elks when the Delaware ban was passed. he said they had a steady increase in member attendance and membership applications beginning before the ban started, and record numbers when the ban went into effect. Many of my friends that were legion members started going there on a much more regular basis after the ban.

[SheLion]

This law is one that came exclusively from a funded special interest group....funded with taxpayer money.

Exactly.  The general public does not realize that the state isn't paying for the Tobacco Settlement money and Big Tobacco isn't paying for the Tobacco Settlement Money!  It's the smokers in the state that pay for it with the taxes we pay on cigarettes.  The taxes, in turn, are used to pay the wages for coalitions like the Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine and for Maine Healthy Partnerships!  We, the smokers are paying their wages, and they in turn are banning us from every venue.

I'm a smoker, so I lean towards the obvious, but I'm hearing gripes from non-smokers about the nanny state going too far with this.

So far, only 5 states out of 50 have turned into Nanny States.

[NetValue]

Maine should heed Maryland's experience. Pubs, bars and restaurants continue to close in those counties that banned smoking. Maryland does not allow free choice. (It's a liberal democrat state.) So there is no ability for the owner to designate his property as "non-smoking" or "smoking" so he can meet the desires of the public. Nope. Not in Maryland where government knows best.

[SheLion]

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
--William Pitt (Earl of Chatham), speech in the House of Lords, November 18, 1783

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- C.S Lewis

and......

"The role of government is not to create wealth.
The role of government is to create an environment
in which the entrepreneur or small business or
dreamer can flourish.  And that starts with rule of law,
respect of private property, less regulatory burdens on the
entrepreneur, open banking laws so that all people
have access to capital, and good tax policy."

President George W. Bush
St. Petersburg University,
St. Petersburg, Russia
May 25, 2002

"The taxing power...must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change."
Ronald Reagan - 1981

[Gabz]

I'm a bit confused by your post. All the bars I've been in in Maryland permit smoking - as do most of the restaurants. The reason I know this is because we all used to go to maryland after the smoking ban went into effect in Maryland, and now the bar that is closest to where I live happens to be in Maryland.

[coloradan]

"I haven't seen the promised replacement of nonsmokers coming in."

Another canard of the liberals is exposed. Time after time, liberals say that the smoking ban will be good for business, because non-smokers will flock to businesses once smoking is banned. Time after time, this is proven to be false, and time after time, businesses suffer. But this doesn't stop the lie from being told again, somewhere else. Again and again.

It's just like the gun grabbers who threaten of "blood in the streets" and "wild west shootouts" if a state adopts shall-issue concealed carry. Time after time, this fear-mongering is used. And time after time, it is proven false as yet another state does NOT see the things promised by liberals. But, facts notwithstanding, the liberals threaten dire consequences again and again, elsewhere, to push their nanny-state agenda.

Bumping the bang_list for the analogy.