It never ceases to amaze me how they say "state money" is funding this chit! When in fact, the smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes are funding this! They don't want the public to know THAT, do they!
Posted on 12/24/2002 12:30:36 AM PST by SheLion
Smoke signals rose on the horizon, and Al Mittendorf didn't like the look of it. In the town where he lives, they were talking about banning smoking, just as they had in the South Georgia town of Albany. But Albany was five years ago, and might as well have been New York, where they banned second-hand cigarette smoke this week, or California, where they cracked down on smokers years ago. This was Loganville, a town of 5,000 that straddles the Gwinnett and Walton county lines. A vote to ban public smoking in restaurants would mean he couldn't light up while having coffee in the Huddle House. DeKalb County, just to the south, had passed a similar law Thursday, abolishing cigarette and pipe and cigar smoking from restaurants in unincorporated parts of the county. Too close for comfort. "I can understand what they are getting to, what they call that second-hand smoke," said Mittendorf, a 54-year-old electrician, as he pulled on a Doral Ultralight. " But it seems to me this country is more and more going to communism." If Mittendorf made his point -- government is altering individual and property rights over tobacco -- he's wrong about the inspiration for the anti-smoking legislation. What's firing up county and local municipalities is intensive lobbying from anti-smoking groups financed by state money from the 1998 tobacco lawsuit settlements. The Georgia Department of Human Resources' Tobacco Use Prevention Section is spending $14.7 million this year -- $4 million of that on an advertising campaign -- to dissuade people from smoking and advocate for stricter second-hand smoking laws. In Georgia, 59 citizen coalitions -- funded by the tobacco settlement money -- are pushing legislation to wipe out smoking in public. They are feeding on California's eradication of second-hand smoke from all buildings, restaurants and bars. "We look at what happened in California, where they started gradually, and then worked up to more regulations," said Kristen Copes, director of Georgia's Tobacco Use Prevention program. "Eventually we want smoking banned from bars, too." Instead of trying to get a state law passed by the Legislature -- where at least four lobbyists for the tobacco companies R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, Brown & Williamson, and Philip Morris work the corridors of power -- the activists' strategy is to take on one municipality at a time. DeKalb County is their second major victory. They took Albany in 1998. The Middle Georgia town of Milledgeville is likely the next to act in favor of banning smoking in restaurants. The DeKalb law exempts bars, "because children do not go to bars, and seniors do not tend to go to bars," said county Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones, trying to explain why a full ban, including bars, wasn't passed. The law will go into effect about 60 days after Jones signs it, which he said would be "soon." Rick Layton, president of the Georgia Hospitality and Travel Association -- which receives a portion of its funding for "education programs" from the tobacco company Philip Morris -- said the DeKalb ban would have an adverse effect on tourism in the city and state. Loganville's four-term mayor, Mike Jones, a former smoker, said he introduced the ordinance to ban smoking in restaurants, stores, workplaces and within 25 feet of doorways after getting a letter from the Gwinnett County Health Department. The law won a unanimous endorsement in November from the City Council in a preliminary vote. Before passing it, the council will hold a public hearing in January, Jones said. "I'd say right now the public sentiment is 9-to-1 in favor," said the mayor, whose town has no bars. "This is only going to affect about five or six businesses in town, so it's really just a tempest in a teapot." Marty Crider, district coordinator for Huddle House, said she plans to be part of that tempest. The Huddle House was willing to put in filters to eliminate "99 percent" of the smoke from the restaurant, but that was not enough to appease the council, she said. "This isn't just about smoking," she said. "This is about constitutional rights. It's going to hurt our business." Many of the Huddle House's smoking customers are construction workers who gather by the dozen or more most mornings, drinking coffee and smoking. But as smoking bans move across metro Atlanta, they cross all socio-economic lines. At McKendrick's, a fashionable art deco steakhouse in Dunwoody, patrons pay as much as $25 for a post-dinner Cohiba Churchill cigar and $175 for a snifter of Remy Martin Louis XIII cognac. The cognac's still a go. But stogies get the heave-ho when DeKalb's ordinance kicks in. Owner Doug McKendrick said the law gives competing restaurants in other communities an unfair advantage. It will cost him "hundreds of thousands of dollars in business," he said. Between drags on a Marlboro Light, regular Don Jeng, 30, said McKendrick's won't lose him as a customer. "I like to eat here, just maybe not as often," he said. "Unless I quit smoking."
It never ceases to amaze me how they say "state money" is funding this chit! When in fact, the smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes are funding this! They don't want the public to know THAT, do they!
As in other parts of the country, these bans will hurt an already slumping economy while boosting the business of establishments just over the county line where there is no ban.
I predict confused looks on city council faces trying to explain the sudden drops in tax revenue.
It's been my experience that when you approach the City Council on something, they are ready to put a spin on it. Double talk to make you think they answered your question. But you walk away totally confused, like "WHAT DID THEY SAY??!!"
Plus, they could care less about the loss of revenue. They are Fat Cats that puff out their chests and think "it's for the good of the people!" yea... right. Who needs Osama?!
I've recently experienced this first hand. Our city council recently shut down a small dirt track which still drew a good crowd, no drinking was allowed, had been there for 35 years and was the site where the dirt track scenes from the Kenny Rodgers movie "Six Pack" were filmed.
They did this to bend to the whims of a group of new $450,000+ homeowners who decided they didn't like the noise the track generated. Even though support for the track outnumbered opposition 10 to 1. Even though the people on the side of the track were longtime residents.
The city passed a new noise ordinance and used that to shut down the track. They set the decibel level so low that someone mowing the grass with a riding mower is above the limit. Although the law is being challenged and is very flimsy, the damage to the track is already done.
That's really a shame because racetracks are really big revenue generators in other nearby communities such as Senoia and Lanierland.
I wonder how many teams like to park in the pits next to THAT? ugh! But just think: smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes are sponsoring RACE tracks. I bet if they knew, they would have a fit. I know "I" am!
This money should be spent of health care and even prescription drugs. This is BS!
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