Owners of small bars and restaurants are threatening to allow customers to smoke New Year's Eve after 9 p.m.
New Year's Eve Smoking Ban Protest Eyed by Bar, Restaurant Owners
'Happy Hours' Damper Especially Hits Smaller Blue Collar Bar Owners
December 26, 2010
By: Dave Rogers
Is there a way health issues of hospitality employees can be protected and smoking desires of some customers be granted?
That knotty question likely will be facing new Gov. Rick Snyder and the new Legislature when they hit Lansing in January.
Owners of small bars and restaurants are threatening to allow customers to smoke New Year's Eve after 9 p.m., in a growing protest over Michigan's eight-month old smoking ban.
The Michigan Licensed Beverage Association (MLBA) says a survey of owners of 2,500 establishments showed loss of an average of 20.62 percent of business in the first three months of the ban.
And, owners of about 400 smaller establishments with revenues under $250,000 a year said losses were more than 27 percent over the same three months.
However, the state counters, claiming that a study in September showed more than 70 percent of Michigan residents favored the ban and more than 80 percent believe second-hand smoke is a health risk.
"We aren't going to change everyone's mind about this law," said James McCurtis of the Michigan Department of Community Health. "Overall, Michiganians are in favor of the law. That is why the Legislature tackled it."
Lance Binoniemi, executive director of the MLBA, said bar owners who have permitted smoking despite the ban say enforcement is varied. In some cases law-abiding bars have reported competitors for allowing smoking in violation of the ban.
Earlier this year, some bars and restaurants protested the ban by refusing to sell the state's Club Keno lottery tickets.
The State Lottery Commission says sales fell 14.15 percent from May to September compared with the same period of 2009, costing the state $29.4 million.
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McCurtis said the effects of the ban will moderate as customers who shunned formerly smoky bars and restaurants return.
"In a little bar that doesn't serve food -- I can't see it," said Detroit bar manager Mike Ostin, a smoker. "I would be better off opening a bar in communist Russia. I'd have more rights."
Tom Weber, Acting Chief Deputy Commissioner of the Michigan Lottery, MLBA members that Keno sales were significantly down since the Smoking ban took effect May 1, 2010. Unaudited figures from the Lottery showed sales down 18 percent in May, 16 percent in June and July, compared to the same months in 2009.
"Unfortunately, this decline is not a big surprise to those of us in the hospitality industry," said Binoniemi of the MLBA, adding:
"Since lawmakers started tossing the idea of a smoking ban around more than 10 years ago, we've tried to tell them our businesses will be adversely affected. These numbers from the Lottery are clear and obvious evidence that our predictions were on the money."
Binoniemi called Michigan's ban "an awkwardly-worded and poorly-designed piece of legislation."
He said further that the Smoking Ban has caused confusion around the state as enforcement is under local health departments, often lacking funding and personnel, and failing to get direction from the State to adequately enforce the new law.
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