The Sporting Life: Restaurant smoking ban not a decision for city to make

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Brent Lawrence is columnist and copy editor for the Springfield Business Journal.|ret||ret||tab|

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The government apparently wants to milk its cash cow and also wants to take the cow to slaughter.|ret||ret||tab|

On one hand, state legislators are arguing how much tobacco money to use in the budget. Republicans are calling to borrow $100 million from tobacco settlement funds to supplement the budget. Gov. Bob Holden wanted to issue $350 million in bonds, backed by future tobacco revenues. All this is in addition to the annual fees collected by the state; in 2001, Missouri took in $100 million in cigarette tax revenues and $142 million in tobacco settlement revenues.|ret||ret||tab|

That mooing sound you hear is the cash cow being milked dry.|ret||ret||tab|

And now, city of Springfield officials have come up with the idea to ban smoking in restaurants.|ret||ret||tab|

Regardless, of weither you're a smoker, you should fight this ban. The government be it city, state or federal shouldn't have any say about any legal activity that happens in a private business.|ret||ret||tab|

About 70 percent of restaurants are in favor of a ban on smoking in restaurants, according to Health Department officials. I understand why restaurants would like to do away with smoking, as the current smoking/nonsmoking arrangement can create some empty smoking tables while there's a line for nonsmoking.|ret||ret||tab|

It's also understandable that restaurants don't want to make the choice of smoking or nonsmoking, fearing that customers might go to a different restaurant. The easy way out is to let the government decide, putting all restaurants on a level playing field.|ret||ret||tab|

However, the government has no business regulating a legal activity inside of a private business.|ret||ret||tab|

Applebee's, like many other Springfield restaurants, had the intestinal fortitude to ban smoking in the restaurant on East Primrose Street. Good for Applebee's. The owner made a decision and is living with the results. |ret||ret||tab|

"We've had a very positive response to it," said Debbie Smith, Applebee's manager. "We have had an increase in sales and less wait time for customers. We had a few people upset, but by far greater response of ... "Now we can come here and eat.'"|ret||ret||tab|

What a novel idea letting each restaurant and the individual customers make their own decisions.|ret||ret||tab|

If I don't want to be around cigarette smoke, then I can choose where to go. I might decide to eat at Applebee's. Or I might go to Pappy's or Ebbet's Field and suck up as many second-hand fumes as possible.|ret||ret||tab|

That's my choice to make, not the government's. And where would it end? You know that much of the food served in those restaurants is loaded with calories, fat and cholesterol. Are they next on the banned list?|ret||ret||tab|

The perfect example of smoking freedom exists within the bowling community. Lighthouse Lanes does not allow smoking or alcohol. Battlefield Lanes does.|ret||ret||tab|

Bowlers have the option of where they want to go. A free market has allowed bowlers to make choices, just as diners also should be able to choose smoking or nonsmoking restaurants.|ret||ret||tab|

"There's just basically nowhere you can smoke. If you can't do it, then why aren't (legislators) making it illegal then?" said Sherry Levesque, a nonsmoker who manages Battlefield Lanes. "When they start going to Bijans and adult-type restaurants, how can (the government) tell them that they can't allow their people to smoke?"|ret||ret||tab|

The official government spin is that smoking is harmful to people, so they're just looking out for the public's health.|ret||ret||tab|

Really? Then make cigarettes illegal. It should be a simple decision either it's good for the public or it's not. Make it legal or illegal.|ret||ret||tab|

Actually, the decision has everything to do with health the health of state tax dollars. With millions of tax dollars on the line, the state will keep a veterinarian on staff to keep this cash cow alive.|ret||ret||tab|

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