[SheLion]

I don't care how they spin it!  When 25-30% of the tourist smoke, and word got out that Maine was forced to go smoke-free, tourists will take their money to another smoker friendly state!

A tourist can no longer have a cigarette in a restaurant, bar, nightclub, sports inn, tavern, bowling alley in the state of Maine.

The economist are nuts if they think this has nothing to do with the revenue. 

Partnership For A Tobacco Free Maine is choking the economy!  Like it or not!

[SheLion]

Maine Ping

[leenie312]

I have been to Maine a couple of times and it is a nice state...but it stinks...smells like a rotten egg fart in a lot of the rural areas due to nasty factories...and the root beer looking water in Augusta is the grossest thing I have ever seen..Granted there are some really nice places. But I'll take the smell of good old cow manure over the stench I smelled there...They have taken care of inside air pollution...maybe they should consider cleaning up outside air as well.

[cowtowney]

An old man had lived his whole life in a small cabin on the Maine and New Hampshire border. A survey had just been completed and he was informed that he actually did not live in Maine, but rather in New Hampshire. His response was, "Thank goodness! I don’t think I could endure another Maine winter."

[armymarinemom]

Yep come to Maine and let us be your Nanny for your tourest dollars. Tax em, bore em, and control em they will like us.. Not.

[HostileTerritory]

When 25-30% of the tourist smoke, and word got out that Maine was forced to go smoke-free, tourists will take their money to another smoker friendly state!

Or province. Maine's coast is like the Riviera for Quebeckers--their kids actually go in the ocean. And those people smoke like chimneys.

[US_MilitaryRules]

I stayed in Rockland for a few nights at a hotel and I couldn't believe the accomadations. Hotel was remodeled on to a remodel to another remodel. The hotel was like a maze. I'm sure the city inspector was bought and paid for. Typical communist run gov.

[montag813]

Perhaps all those Somali scumbags they imported up there scared tourists away.

[daviddennis]

When I was a child, my divorced father took me up to his girlfriend's place in Maine during what they laughably refer to as a "summer".

I don't think it ever got above 60.

It was fun tooling around in the small powerboat he bought me, but I certainly would not voluntarily return -- I'd rather visit someplace with pleasant weather, sorry :-(.

D

[Founding Father]

.... stressed the importance of being polite to visitors...

The Mainers flunked this lesson, except those around Bar Harbor who are polite.

[gidget7]

You're right SheLion! Smokers will go to where they can enjoy a cigarette after their meals, or at least to accommodations that still have smoking and non smoking rooms. Most from this area are going south, and the majority of them, scouting for possible moving destinations. As the NE gets more and more socialist and Liberal, more and more are moving out.

Maine needs to be concerned, as does CT now, that they will join MA in having negative growth numbers next year. The people they are losing are middle class, and businesses! Businesses are not going to, if there is another place they don't have to, stay where they have to pay exorbitant taxes, and cover same sex couples with insurance. That's just the reality.

[CheezyD]

My wife and I have vacationed in Maine. We love it there and can't wait until our next trip up there.

I've never heard of anyone scheduling a vacation around the smoking rules. That's just nuts.

[warsaw44]

Average folks in Maine are getting killed with property taxes. There are quite a few people in the state who own a considerable amount of land but do not have a considerable income. These people suffer the tax burden as best they can but many times end up having to sell land which has been in their family for generations.
I lived in Maine for some time ago and have relatives in the state. Those Winters were unforgettable. They never seemed to end. Then there was Black Fly season - that was real fun!
I hear that Maine is once again putting the Same Sex Marriage nonsense up for vote yet again. That state has changed so much in the last 20 years. Its a real shame.

[Sam Cree]

ping

[EGPWS]

I heard yesterday on the news that Minneapolis is seeing the effects of their smoking ban which took effect in April.

They are concerned because business' have already seen up to a 30% decrease in revenue and of course the heated discussion is "how do we make up for the loss?"

To be an 8 year old in the 3rd grade again as to understand the mindset of some in government.....

[mewzilla]

How much of the rises in room rates have to do with a rise in room taxes, any of it?

[maine-iac7]

Got a kick out of your bold shouting

reminds me of what Ayn Rand said - if you shout - you've lost your argument, even if right -

but most people shout - (the libs sure do) to try to make it sound more plausible (see my post #61)

[MinuteGal]

I wouldn't want to go to Maine in case I run into Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe.

In fact, I don't even want to be in a state mixing with people who elect people like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

Leni

[Euro-American Scum]

Visiting Maine in January one year (on business), I got the distinct impression there are certain latitudes north of which, people are simply not meant to live.

[newsgatherer]

add to discrimination against smokers, descrimination agasint familes, traditional familes.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

I would have thought that the weather would have been a factor. Right now there is (another) Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service

Bad weather = no tourists.