RI:Bar, Restaurant Owners Sue Over Smoking Ban Exemptions

turnto10.com ^ | March 28, 2005

[SheLion]

This statement right here tells me everything I need to know about their so-called anti-smoking crusade...only if it's gonna bring them revenue are they really interested in doing it. Heaven forbid the casinos (which no doubt bring in plenty of tourist dollars!) be made to bow to the same laws they are applying to other businesses. It might drive the tourists with their fat wallets away, and then they'd end up losing even more money!

The trouble with this is:  the anti's have the restaurant and bar owners wrapped now.  The private business owners will be falling right into the anti's hands by screaming for a "level playing field."  They will want the Casinos to be completely smoke free as well, so no one will be able to smoke anywhere in the state.

Pity.  The mind control is unbelievable.

[PJammers]

Funny in a sad kind of way I guess!

v/r

[Gabz]

The bars and 3 "racinos" in Delaware were originally exempted from the smokeban legislation in Delaware.............until the chains got hold of the Restaurant Association and got them on board to stop fighting the ban if the bars and racinos were included.

It was such a stupid move........had the restuarant association continued fighting it, along with the bars and casinos, who were fighting even though they were exempt - the antis would not have won.

[exnavychick]

Figures. Once again, I have shot right past the obvious, lol. It's just infuriating to see.

My folks work in a town in the Midwest that recently banned smoking throughout...business is falling off all over the place. All of this after they forced local businesses to put in expensive ventilation systems, ect. to get their smoking sections "up to par". Apparently, the city council did an end run...held a "secret" vote to ban smoking throughout the city. When the news came out, the you-know-what hit the fan, and they were forced to do it all again in a public venue, I gather. It didn't matter...apparently there were enough folks around that didn't want smoking, and were willing to overlook these type of shenanigans to get the result they wanted, so the ordinance passed anyway. I don't know what the margin was, but the simple fact that it passed in the first place is sickening enough.

I can't believe what "sheeple" folks can be sometimes.

How revolting.

[Mears]

But his son Patrick(aka Patches) is in Rhode Island and just warming up.

I'll be interested in seeing how this case goes.God,I hate the Northeast and I used to love it.

[Mears]

In reading this carefully(which I should have done the first time) it looks like this group is against the exemptions,not against the ban.

Does this mean they don't mind the ban but want the so-called "level playing field"?

[exnavychick]

Does this mean they don't mind the ban but want the so-called "level playing field"?

Forgive me for butting in, LOL, but that's what it looks like to me, at any rate. It's either that, or they've decided that if they can't beat 'em, they'll just have to join 'em...even though they are losing business.

[SheLion]

Does this mean they don't mind the ban but want the so-called "level playing field"?

It looks that way, Mears.  They are losing business because the casino's are allowed smoking.  I kinda got lost in the wording of this article as well.

[Mears]

Do you have a chart like this for Massachusetts? I'm especailly interested in the comparison between the beer and wine taxes compared to cigarette taxes.

Thanks!

[SheLion]

Do you have a chart like this for Massachusetts? I'm especailly interested in the comparison between the beer and wine taxes compared to cigarette taxes.

Massachusetts Information

Read more Massachusetts News from Cambridge Citizens for Smokers' Rights.

Cambridge Citizens for Smokers' Rights

Massachusetts Citizens For Freedom

Forces Massachusetts

A Smoke-Free Massachusetts?

Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club of Boston

Report Given to Mass. Government for smoking bylaw

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Tobacco Taxes Massachusetts's excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $1.510 Massachusetts's excise tax collection for the fiscal year ending June 2002: $270,128,000 Sales tax on tobacco products: 5.00% Federal excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $0.39 Total federal excise tax collections in fiscal year 2002: $7,512,700,000 Click here for the Cigarette Tax and Payment Table for all states.

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Comparing Excise Taxes on Cigarettes, Beer and Wine

Number of six-packs of beer that must be sold in Massachusetts to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 127.5

Number of bottles of wine that must be sold in Massachusetts to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 69.7

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Massachusetts Smokers' Contributions
to the State Economy - FY2002

 

In 2001, Massachusetts smokers comprised only 19.5%¹ of the adult population in the state. Here is what they already pay because they choose to buy a legal product:

Smokers Pay Excise Taxes2	$	270,128,197
Smokers Pay Sales Taxes2	$	70,797,970
Smokers Pay Tobacco Settlement Payments3	$	289,011,461
	$	629,937,628

Smokers' Economic/Tax Profile 2001

 

• Income¹

Massachusetts smokers' median household income	$	42,052
Massachusetts nonsmokers' median household income	$	55,138

• Working Families Pay More¹

25.8% of Massachusetts smokers had household income LESS THAN $25,000

20.7% of Massachusetts smokers had household income EQUAL TO or GREATER THAN $75,000

The impact of smoker payments on the incomes of working families was more than THREE TIMES the impact on higher income smokers. Those who can afford it least pay a disproportionate percentage of their hard-earned income in smoker payments.

• Smoker excise tax/sales tax/tobacco settlement payments liability in 2002⁴

Total average paid per Massachusetts smoker in excise and sales taxes	$	360
Cost per Massachusetts smoker for settlement payments to Massachusetts	$	306
Total annual payments to Massachusetts per smoker	$	666
Total annual payments to Massachusetts per nonsmoker	$	0

Massachusetts Smoker Facts ⁵

• Total smokers' payments to Massachusetts in FY2002 were:
  • Nearly ten times as large as FY2001 state excise tax collections on alcoholic beverages ($64.8 million).
  • Equal to more than half of all corporate net income tax revenues paid by Massachusetts corporations in FY2001 ($1.21 billion).
• Total smokers' payments for FY2002 were large enough to support:
  • FY2002-06 capital spending on the University of Massachusetts' facilities - all campuses ($247 million) AND public safety and correctional facilities ($180 million) COMBINED
    OR
  • FY2002 spending on sheriffs ($193.2 million) AND local aid for public school construction through the School Building Assistance program ($375 million) COMBINED.
• In 1997, smokers provided 9,739 jobs that paid an additional $17.6 million to the state in personal and corporate income taxes.⁶

TOTAL SMOKER CIGARETTE PAYMENTS TO MASSACHUSETTS
FY2002

Per year:	$	629,937,628
Per day:	$	1,724,675
Per hour:	$	71,861
Per minute:	$	1,198
Per second:	$	20

CIGARETTES DON'T PAY TAXES -
MASSACHUSETTS SMOKERS DO!!

 

¹ Centers for Disease Control's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2001
² Orzechowski & Walker, Arlington, Virginia; from state revenue department.
³ PriceWaterhouseCooper
⁴ U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 state population and Centers for Disease Control's Behavioral Risk Surveillance System, 2001
⁵ Sources: U.S. Census Bureau and Executive Office for Administration and Finance, Fiscal Affairs Division, The Governor's Budget Recommendation Fiscal Year 2003: Budget and Economic Overview, January 23, 2002. Online at http://www.state.ma.us/bb/fy2003h1/govs_message/overview.htm.
⁶ American Economics Group, Inc., The U.S. Tobacco Industry in 1997: Its Economic Impact in the States.

 

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Master Settlement Agreement Payments To Date

 

$941,861,359 has been paid to Massachusetts since the Master Settlement Agreement was signed on November 23, 1998.

 

[Mears]

Thanks,She. I figured if you didn't have it that it didn't exist.

Bookmarked and saved for future "discussions".

[SheLion]

Thanks,She. I figured if you didn't have it that it didn't exist.

If the general public knew just how much smoker's taxes kept a state going, they wouldn't be so quick to want to ban and control us.

Just makes me sick. And would it ever dawn on these non-smoker's that if "we" no longer existed, that their wallet would be hit to make up for the loss of revenue?

Sure, it's easy for a non-smoker to vote against us, but they are voting against themselves in the long run.

It's all nuts.

[BriarBey]

So what can be done to a person if they light up in a non-smoking bar/restaurant and refuse to put their cig. out or leave?

[SheLion]

So what can be done to a person if they light up in a non-smoking bar/restaurant and refuse to put their cig. out or leave?

Some states that have passed smoking laws make the business owner pay. So much for the first offense, so much for the second, so much for the third, etc.

Other states make the smoker pay the fine. And taxpayers are paying for the "smoke police," while the real bad guy runs rampant.

[Mears]

Just got in from lunch and was listening to talk radio. The moron legislators in Boston are considering a special fee(tax) for driving in certain congested parts of the city,priamarily the North End.

About 90% of the calls that came in were from small businessmen who have businesses in downtown Boston.They are enraged and several of them mentioned the negative impact that the smoking ban has had on business.

More taxes,more laws,less business.