Matthew Borghese - AHN News Writer
Cincinnati, OH (AHN) - Bar owners in Ohio say a statewide ban on smoking in public places is bringing small businesses to the breaking-point. Owners of small bars, bowling alleys and other establishments say an exemption should be written in to help bring back customers.
A coalition of 300 bar owners will lobby the state government to install exceptions allowing places that receive no more than 10 percent of their revenue from food, such as bars and taverns, to allow smoking.
Patrick Carroll, president of the Buckeye Liquor Permit Holders Association explains, "Too many places are losing too much money. Some are on the verge of closing their doors." The group has collected almost 1,500 signatures pushing for an exemption for bars.
According to the Cincinnati Post, the group must collect 140,000 signatures to force the legislature to consider it. About 400,000 signatures would be needed to put the issue on the ballot if lawmakers refuse.
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I am a hard working Ohio resident who feels like the communist party has finally taken over our great State of Ohio. When I can't go out on a Friday night after working all week or to watch a football game on Sunday because of a worthless law put forth by our legislators, time has come to look for my next place to live. I just happen to enjoy a cigarette with my beer. But hey, as I sit enjoying one of my last vices of having a smoke, I'm doing it in my garage with many friends who used to patronize the same establishments that I did. Between the 10 of us, we figure that we are saving about 30 dollars apiece per football game and even more on the weekend nights. It doesn't take much of a math wizard to figure out how much money with just this little crowd is being taken out of the local business owners pockets. We even enjoy the cookouts which now takes the money out of the local restaurants that we used to order from. Then there is the tax value that will be lost. Where does it stop. I'm just glad that I'm not a gambler, then all the surrounding states would be my playground, again, Ohio losing out. What will it take for the morons in Columbus to wake up and stop screwing the middle class working people. I know quitting is the best thing but I'm not going to be told to quit by some idiotic communist state legislator. Have fun Ohio, you are your own worst enemy!
To Kentucky Legislators.
On the evening news it was reported that the first salvo in the war against smokers would be to ask for a 70-cent increase in the cigarette tax. The current tax is 30 cents. While most lawmakers feel that doubling to tax to 60 cents is the most that could actually pass, by starting with an unrealistically high tax it will be easier to get lawmakers to look at lower tax increase.
The World Health Organization ran one of the most exhaustive tests on SHS ever done. After years of meticulous record keeping of all the data, their ultimate findings showed no measurable relationship of SHS to any form of cancer or other illness. The only measurable fact they did discover was that of all adult children who came from homes where both parents smoked had a 22% better chance of NOT contracting lung cancer than did adult children who came from homes where both parents did not smoke. The W.H. O attempted to hide these facts from the public until several astute reporters forced them to make their facts public.
Taxes on smoking products is almost exclusively started by organizations such as The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ACS, A.S.H., the Heart, Cancer, and Lung Organizations and major pharmaceutical corporations.. Promoting taxes on smoking is big business for these organizations, especially the drug companies who are reaping huge profits on their almost worthless smoking cessation products. Stop smoking products are 85% ineffective while also causing more harm than SHS ever will.
Smokers and smoking impose a heavy cost on society. Of all the lies told by the anti smoke haters this one has to be the most ludicrous. For example, if smoking kills people well before their time, the saving of Social Security and Medicare benefits would be significant. The extra medical costs to the "State" are more than exceeded by the taxes currently paid by smokers. Contrary to reports that smokers miss more work time than non-smokers is a completely unsubstantiated number. There are so many variables as to why people miss work; it would be impossible to determine whether smoking was a significant cause.
About half of the smoking population has quit over the past 30 years, yet there has been no reduction in cancer, heart disease or comparable increase in life expectancy. Smoke is said to have about 4,000 identifiable chemicals, yet they have been unable to name them. This is a guess made by Stanton Glantz, an avid anti-smoker with no proof. The estimates of identifiable chemicals run from 40 to 56 according who makes the report. None of these 40+ has been proven to be cancer causing in smoke. Your daily diet has about 10,000 such chemicals. Arsenic, which is considered a leading cause of lung cancer, is found in significantly larger quantities in a glass of water than in a cigarette. Given the hysteria of anti-smokers, we should run at the sight of a glass of water. An ACS study shows that SHS is 25,000 times below OSHA allowable limits.
The perception that tobacco taxes only affect smokers, only feeds a downward spiral. A high tax on tobacco has two potential consequences. Smokers will quit or they will simply find other sources for tobacco. In both instances hardworking neighborhood merchants suffer and the result of their suffering is a loss of economic activity and tax revenue for the people. The sales from neighboring states with higher taxes will also be lost. Many businesses will close. The National Laboratories in Oakridge Tennessee, the largest study to date on Bars and Restaurants, found no harm to non-smokers.
The Journal of the American Medical Association looked at the social costs and taxes related to drinking and smoking and arrived at an unexpected conclusion. The analysis showed that to reflect true fairness smokers should actually get paid between 22 cents to $1.28 by nonsmokers for every pack smoked in order to equalize the societal costs and savings from their habit
Taken from an Ohio State study. Simulations assessing the potential impact of Governor Blagojevich’s proposed $0.75 increase in the cigarette tax find that it could cost the state as many as 7,878 jobs in 2006. Over five years the job losses add up to nearly 50,000.
The biggest hit will be taken by the retail industry, which could lose 5,914 jobs in 2006. Yet, many other industries will lose jobs as an indirect effect of this tax, industries like hotels (227), business services (134), personal and repair services (152), and construction (210).
Moreover, as the cigarette tax is increased, sales tax revenue will dramatically decrease, making the budget overly reliant on tobacco. In just the first year the state will lose $28 million in sales tax revenue. By 2010 that number will have climbed to nearly $36 million in lost sales tax revenue. This loss stems from the fact that smokers often buy other convenience items when they purchase their cigarettes like gas, milk, coffee … etc. If smokers are driving to Indiana to buy their cigarettes they’re probably buying some of these other items there as well. Over the next five years the state will lose $198 million in sales tax revenue from tobacco taxes. Think of just how much mom and pop stores all across the state stand to lose. It is apparent that once again the Governor is trying to avoid real budgets solutions, opting instead for a politically advantageous Band-Aid.
Despite enormous tax increases, teenage smoking remains steady. If the statistics of the Antismokers were true, teen smoking would be virtually non-existent at this point. Of course they're not true and teen smoking is still higher than it was back in the 1970s and 1980s when taxes were enormously lower, Antismoking ads on TV were almost non-existent, schools had smoking areas for student breaks, and the Antismoking budget was more like $9 million a year rather than $900 million. Anti-smokers make a very good living spreading misinformation supplied by the EPA, ACS, AMA and Others.
If taxes must be raised, there is no just reason for taxing smokers to the exclusion of the non-smoking public. I am in possession of 150 studies, only 3 of which show a possibility of harm from Second Hand Smoke. The ACS has been asked to show just 3 deaths proven to be caused by Second Hand Smoke and have yet to provide proof. They make statements with no positive proof. Tobacco is only one of over three dozen products thought, not proven, to cause cancer. Federal Judge Osteen, after 4 years of study with independent scientist, found the EPA report of 3,000 deaths a year, to be fraudulent but that hasn’t stopped the lie. All of the other figures are extrapolated from computers with no real loss of life.
I have been researching SHS since 1998 and have found, if you are looking for truth, you will not find it on any Government, ACS or Health Department connoted web site. It’s all about the money not health.
I have testified or provided information to every City or County that has refused to pass Smoking Bans and I am willing to testify or provide verifiable information at any time.
Thank you for your time and hoping for fair legislation.
Virgil Kleinhelter
8804 Brown Austin Rd.
Fairdale, Ky. 40118
Cell 502-727-4747
v.kleinhelter@insightbb.com
The law was voted in, so be it. Live with it, if ya don't like it quit smoking.
Thje law was voted in. Get over it,, if ya don't like it quit smoking
Thje law was voted in. Get over it,, if ya don't like it quit smoking
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