I Told You They Were Blowing Smoke

Economic disaster! The bar and restaurant industry will collapse! Tax revenues will plummet!

Remember all that bullshit from the pro-second hand smoke crowd while the smoking ban was debated in Springfield?

Well, lookee here; it was all just a load after all.

Before the city of Springfield's smoking ban went into effect almost a year ago, owners of local bars and some restaurants predicted economic disaster for their industry - a catastrophe they said would also result in less money flowing into the city's tax coffers.

That hasn't happened.

While some bar and restaurant owners have cited the ban as the reason they went out of business, the city's tax revenue from bars and restaurants has grown robustly since the ban, according to Illinois Department of Revenue data.

In fact, in the two quarters since the ban was enacted, city tax revenue from restaurants grew twice as fast as before the ban.

And you know what, I have no more difficulty getting a meal or a drink than I did before the ban. Amazing.

Of course, this isn't a demonstration of my great predictive powers. It was all too obvious the pro-second hand smoke folks were full of it because there were so many examples nationally and internationally that demonstrated quite clearly they were wrong (well, lying really). Too bad so many people chose to believe them. Oh well, people continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh and watch Fox News too. One born every minute.