At the stroke of midnight Saturday night, New York smokers lost their glass slipper, and their lit cigarettes became $1,000 fines.
Gov. George Pataki signed a bill into law that bans smoking in places of employment, including bars and restaurants.
Proponents of the law said it was necessary to protect New Yorkers from the dangers of second-hand smoke.
“In addition to the toll smoking and second-hand smoke takes on public health, there is a significant economic impact,” said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno in a New York State Senate release. Bruno said the cost of second-hand smoke was $6.4 billion every year, and other costs, such as job truancy due to smoking diseases, totaled $5.3 billion a year.
Those involved in the entertainment industry feel just the opposite, that the new law would do more to hurt the economy.
Scott Wexler, executive director of Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association, said that the effect similar laws had in other states could anticipate the impact of the law.
“Based on what happened in California when they imposed a similar ban, we’re expecting a decline of 3 percent in bars and taverns operating in the state,” Wexler said. “There are about 1,000 fewer bars and taverns operating today in California than when the ban went into effect. There are a few more restaurants.”
Wexler said the effect of those closures was obvious.
“When businesses close people lose jobs, less taxes are paid and there is a negative impact on the economy,” Wexler said. “In California, the impact varied from establishment to establishment,” Wexler said. “But in studies a very high number of people surveyed said they lost business because of the ban.”
The ban comes an inopportune time for tavern owners in New York, a state that just increased the tenacity of drunk-driving laws.
“The timing is very bad, because New York state just lowered the blood-alcohol-content level for drunk driving. That was perceived as eventually having a negative impact on bar and tavern business,” Wexler said. “This is an example of a law going too far, regardless of how extreme you are on the issue of protecting employees from second-hand smoke.”
New York City had imposed on itself a similar ban to the one the city of Madison plans to have in place by 2006. Under these plans, bars can allow smoking inside separately ventilated rooms. However, under the current New York state law, no smoking is allowed, regardless of rooms with separate ventilation, shorting NYC businesses that built such rooms out the expenses of renovation.
“There were no employees allowed into the separately ventilated smoking rooms in New York City,” Wexler said. “The rules about those rooms were very rigorous about not allowing any smoke whatsoever coming out and into the air of the larger area.”
Wexler said there are a number of options being considered by those who feel the law would negatively affect them.
“There’s been some discussion of possible amendments to the law. One we’ve heard the most is a possible tax credit for those establishments who built separately ventilated smoking rooms, or some other such mechanism to offset the cost of building those separately ventilated rooms,” Wexler said. “I never would’ve thought it would happen in New York. This law goes against the best interest of businesses, smokers and those who live in the neighborhoods of these establishments.”
Those not beholden to the law include private homes, automobiles, hotel rooms, retail tobacco businesses and established cigar bars, and outdoor bar and restaurant areas.
