Smoking Ban Under Study
Residents of South Dakota may have to wait until January 2011 for a statewide smoking ban to actually take effect.
According to an Associated Press story, enough signatures have been collected for a petition to allow voters to decide whether they want a smoking ban or not.
The petition needs at least 16,776 signatures in order to make it on the ballot for voters on November 2010, and Larry Mann, coordinator of the petition, said even more signatures would be collected.
“We’re in good shape as far as signatures needed. Now we’re just trying to build a buffer,” said Mann, who leads the petition on behalf of the Video Lottery Establishments of South Dakota, the Licensed Beverage Dealers of South Dakota, the DeVitt Gaming Association and the Music and Vending Association of South Dakota.
The smoking ban is supposed to take effect July 1 and would make it illegal to smoke in public places such as bars, restaurants and video lottery establishments.
The results of the petition are being monitored not only by residents of South Dakota, but also by bar owners in Nebraska.
On June 1, Nebraska’s smoking ban took effect and a few bars have tried to fight it.
“There are two or three bars in Omaha who are fighting the ban, but they can afford to,” JoAnn Sprakel, owner of the Sports Stop Bar in Crofton, Neb., said. “The bigger bars can fight it because they have more income. For most of the other bars, it’s hard to fight the ban because we are dealing with a limited income.”
Sprakel said the smoking ban has affected her bar, especially at night when customers are drinking. In order to cater to customers who smoke, Sprakel started a beer garden outside her establishment.
Sprakel said she knows many other bars have come up with the same solution, but it still isn’t the perfect answer.
“Customers can go outside to the beer garden and have a smoke, and I am just trying to make my customers happy,” Sprakel said. “But a beer garden adds more insurance coverage to my bar, so it’s another expense that I have to pay.”
But Sprakel said the biggest complaint she has about the ban is the government telling her and other owners what they can and cannot allow within their own businesses.
“Smoking is an option they are taking away from small business owners. That’s what bothers me the most,” Sprakel said. “The government is trying to control small businesses, and that makes it hard on me when I am trying to make a living with my business.”
South Dakota bar owners have expressed the same concern about the smoking ban.
Kim Braunesreither of Boomer’s Lounge in Yankton is the director of the License Beverage and Dealers of South Dakota. She said most of the owners knew the ban was coming, and the petition is more for protection.
“The main reason for the petition is to keep 18 months of extra revenue we might have lost if the smoking ban starts in July, but we don’t even know for sure if there will be a drop-off,” Braunesreither said. “We know it’s coming eventually. All the states around us have it in place and it’s the direction every state is going.”
No matter what happens, Braunesreither said she would adjust to make all of her customers happy.
Tom French, the owner of the Charcoal Lounge in Vermillion, he said he doesn’t expect much of a drop-off in revenue at his bar.
“There might be a couple of weeks or months when it might not be as busy, but this is a college town, so students are going to keep coming here regardless,” French said. “I don’t like that the government is telling us what we can do, but I’ve seen other laws passed in other states which limit what a bar can do, as well.”
But both Braunesreither and French have the same concerns about the smoking ban.
“I wonder what the government is going to take away next,” Braunesreither said. “Is the government going to limit how many people I can serve, what drinks I can serve or how many drinks somebody can have? I don’t feel it’s the governments right to tell us that.”
© Copyright: Yankton
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These smoking bans will probably go down in history as one of the greatest marketing scams ever. They want to “hurry up and pass the bans” before people find out who is paying the lobbyists pushing for them.