California's Smoke-Free Law Has Helped Business (1999)

Date: Monday, November 15, 1999 11:41:23 AM

CA - Report Shows Restaurant/Bar Smoking Ban Has Not Hurt Business [11/08-6] Excerpts from Smoking ban good for bars, a report says

By James P. Sweeney, COPLEY NEWS SERVICE [11/06/99]

California --In stark contrast to predictions of economic ruin, bars around the state appear to have enjoyed a healthy increase in business during the first year of a controversial smoking ban, fresh sales data show.

Two retail categories that cover bars and taverns posted sales growth of 6.1 percent and 5.1 percent during 1998, according to a year-end report compiled by the state Board of Equalization, which collects sales taxes.

Those figures straddle a 5.6 percent overall increase in retail sales statewide during the year.

Although not definitive -- both categories include restaurants where smoking has been prohibited much longer -- the numbers were cheered by anti-smoking advocates and almost certainly doom prospects for legislation to repeal or soften the smoking ban.

California outlawed smoking in restaurants in 1994. The prohibition was extended to bars and gambling establishments four years later. Efforts to repeal it have failed.

The first full year of sales tax data under the bar-smoking ban showed that for businesses licensed to sell all types of liquor, sales were up 5.1 percent to $9.1 billion in 1998. That category includes most conventional bars, as well as restaurants with full-service bars.

A second category, businesses that can serve only beer and wine, enjoyed an even larger, 6.1 percent boost in sales to $7.6 billion. That classification also includes restaurant-bar combinations.