Description

Recently, there was a “Town Hall Meeting” (Pep Rally) held at the Irvington branch of the Indianapols Marion county public library. It was one sided to say the least, not allowing others to voice their opposing viewpoints, being that the panel [to include the event moderator] were all blatantly in favor of a complete smoking ban throughout Indianapolis, to include all adult only venues (18 and older) such as restaurants and bars.

City County Councilman Kent Smith was the chief elected official at this meeting and he is the Councilman that is entertaining the possibility of putting forth this idea to the council as a possible local ordnance. (City Councilman Ed Colman was also in attendance and is in opposition of said smoking ban) Councilman Smith has stated all along that he, despite his own personal beliefs, will listen to the voice of the people and act on their behalf. He also recognized that the last “Town Hall Meeting” was at the very least extremely one side, not having a suitable opportunity for the opposition to voice their opinion on the matter as he would like. So he, being a true man of his word, offered to let the ILBA host the second of what will be three meetings. This is his way of ensuring that he gets the opportunity to hear EVERYONE'S voice in the matter that chooses to express it.

The issue isn't as the anti-smoking activists would have you believe, about the negatives of smoking. (No one is claiming that it's a healthy endeavor) It's about the rights of property owners to allow adult citizens to partake in a legal adult activity in an adult ONLY venue that is well labeled as such.

This is NOT About smoking. Not supporting a smoking ban doesn't mean you're pro smoking, it means you're for:

Personal property rights.

Small government being better than big government.

Against the government trying to save people from themselves and infringing on freedoms and private property rights.

Opposition to a cleverly disguised agenda labeled loosely as an “employee health issue” for all those employees that do not smoke but a “forced” work in a smoking environment. As if they weren't smart enough to realize it was a smoking venue when they walked in and applied for the job or as if there weren't plenty of other opportunities in this industry in non-smoking venues now. There are approximately 350 locations citywide of the 1000+ bars & restaurants you may legally consume alcohol that allow smoking. If these 350 smoking locations averaged 4 employees per (Generous number) that would yield you 1400 employees in total throughout Indianapolis that work in smoking venues. If you go by the anti-smoking folk's own numbers being that less than 20% of the populous smokes then that would take the total number of employees CITY WIDE do not smoke but work in a smoking venue down to a mere 280 of these “trapped non-smokers” at a full 20%. Yet they have produced not one of these few souls… (ILBA 11th Dist. President, Bill Smyth has already offered up the idea of the helping facilitate seamless job relocations for any non-smoker that wishes to leave their smoking venue job to take one in a non-smoking venue. (Look at all the opportunities as such already listed on Craig's list!)

It's about avoiding a major loss of revenue for the city via the loss of Alcohol and cigarette sales to the surrounding “doughnut” counties. The tax revenue the city bases their budget from will be negatively affected despite their claims of the opposite. (Remember the Bar's & Restaurants are the only one's paying that additional 2% for the Lucas Oil Stadium)

Where is this loss of tax revenue going to come from?

Property taxes? Nope, they're going to implement a Property Tax Cap soon…

Income tax hike and budget cuts on other city essentials? Yep! That will be their only choice…

They will have you to believe that this smoking ban won't negatively affect our bars and restaurants at all. They will states that it was a great success in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. They fail to mention that simply logistical fact that it takes at least 2 hours to get out of and back into these 3 major cities and people won't do that just to have a drink and a smoke. They also fail to take into consideration that you or anybody be on our Circle Monument and told to go in any direction you can be completely out of our city and county limits within 15 to 20 minutes without breaking a single traffic law. How bad will that affect our bars and restaurants in downtown Indy that have a client base that frequent them because they can smoke? Now think of how bad that will affect our restaurants in on the outer perimeter of our great cities boundaries.

This is not a political party line issue; this comes down to simple math based off of a high degree of common sense; property rights and small government vs. BIG government… a.k.a. Big Brother.

We hope to see you there!

Hosted By: The 11th District of the Indiana License Beverage Association.
When: Tuesday, March 24th at 6:00 PM.
Where: Indianapolis Marion county public library Downtown Central branch at 40 E. St. Clair St.
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Notable Attendees: City County Councilman Edward Colman and Kent Smith among others.
Moderated by: Abdul-Hakim Shabazz

Tags: Town Hall Meeting Bars Indianapolis Smoking Bars Restaurants