Wow......I GOTTA see how they make this lost income up!!
One of my five astute readers of this drivel (ALL of my readers are astute, but I only have about five [known] readers of this drivel) stated the following regarding my Monday, May 14th, 2007 post -
Oh man you missed the boat on this one. R.I.P. to smoking in bars in Oregon effective January 1, 2009.I'm so happy the government is my nanny, looking out for me in placed of vice where only adults congregate and do so voluntarily. I can't wait until they start taxing fast food to protect me from obesity! Oh, wait, the Oregon legislature is owned by the restaurant lobby. Never mind.
WOW..talk about shooting yourself in the ass.....
Naw, not really. The Oregon Restaurant Association doesn't always get it's way. Actually, the restaurant lobby DID want to kill Sports Action (because you DO play Video Crack in a restaurant or tavern, and you DID NOT play Sports Action there), but that lobby did NOT want a smoking ban!
So, to make it simple here, I will state the eight facts under the "....therefore, it follows that...." school of logic:
1) - Oregon instituted a smoking ban in bars.
2) - The majority of bars have the Video Crack (Oregon Lottery electronic slot machines).
3) - It HAS been proven statistically, and empirically, that the majority of people who plant twenty after twenty into these things (Video Crack machines) ARE indeed smokers.
4) - When you got the Gamblin' Jones on something fierce, and you're up $175.00 so far for the night, you are NOT going to want to go and take a break and go outside in mid-January to a 25 degree raining Oregon evening to enjoy a cigarette. Only to come back to someone else who jumped in on your machine whilst you were outside enjoying said cigarette.
5) - Thus, IT FOLLOWS that bars will see a drop off in revenue on both, beverage and food sales in addition to their cut from the video crack, as smokers will choose to stay home or go to tribal casinos, where you CAN smoke.
6) - Thus, IT FOLLOWS that (and this is the number some economists have come up with) the State Legislature, the body that ultimately oversees the Oregon Lottery, stands to lose $100 Million-plus from the said smokers mentioned above in fact #5 staying home or going to tribal casinos in Oregon and Washington State.
7) - It is also a known fact that legislators CANNOT STAND the idea of losing pork-barrel funds, especially from a ca$h-cow like Oregon Lottery's Video Crack when these smokers go elsewhere! Soooooo.......now, HOW are they going to make up that Hundred Mill??
8) - Oooooh, right: It takes like a hyper-majority to increase taxes or create new ones in Oregon......OH! OH! OH!! Wait a sec......Right, but, you CAN have your State Agencies *ahem* "adjust fees".......yeah.......Errrmmmm-hummm.....
So, that $68 per two-year car registration (registration is required by state law, so payment is guaranteed)??? Uhhhhhh.......wow, it might just well go up to $122 in 2009!
Errrmmm, that DEQ Emissions Test at $22 (also required by state statute)?? Try $40 in 2009!
MARK my words - NO new taxes, but some really clever , ahhhhh, "adjustments" in "fees" and "user costs"! This will partially make up the losses from the smokers staying home or going to see the Injuins when they hafta get their Gamblin' and Smokin' Joneses on!!
Now, the State Legislature will do this to protect THEIR losses from the smoking ban......
.....uhhhh, WHO'S gonna help take care of the Mom & Pop small pub owners from the drop in revenue that THEY incur from this smoking ban.......?
......anybody......anybody......Bueller....Bueller.....???
Thought not......
Hypocrisy....not even Oregon is immune from it.......
-E-
One of my five astute readers of this drivel (ALL of my readers are astute, but I only have about five [known] readers of this drivel) stated the following regarding my Monday, May 14th, 2007 post -
Oh man you missed the boat on this one. R.I.P. to smoking in bars in Oregon effective January 1, 2009.I'm so happy the government is my nanny, looking out for me in placed of vice where only adults congregate and do so voluntarily. I can't wait until they start taxing fast food to protect me from obesity! Oh, wait, the Oregon legislature is owned by the restaurant lobby. Never mind.
WOW..talk about shooting yourself in the ass.....
Naw, not really. The Oregon Restaurant Association doesn't always get it's way. Actually, the restaurant lobby DID want to kill Sports Action (because you DO play Video Crack in a restaurant or tavern, and you DID NOT play Sports Action there), but that lobby did NOT want a smoking ban!
So, to make it simple here, I will state the eight facts under the "....therefore, it follows that...." school of logic:
1) - Oregon instituted a smoking ban in bars.
2) - The majority of bars have the Video Crack (Oregon Lottery electronic slot machines).
3) - It HAS been proven statistically, and empirically, that the majority of people who plant twenty after twenty into these things (Video Crack machines) ARE indeed smokers.
4) - When you got the Gamblin' Jones on something fierce, and you're up $175.00 so far for the night, you are NOT going to want to go and take a break and go outside in mid-January to a 25 degree raining Oregon evening to enjoy a cigarette. Only to come back to someone else who jumped in on your machine whilst you were outside enjoying said cigarette.
5) - Thus, IT FOLLOWS that bars will see a drop off in revenue on both, beverage and food sales in addition to their cut from the video crack, as smokers will choose to stay home or go to tribal casinos, where you CAN smoke.
6) - Thus, IT FOLLOWS that (and this is the number some economists have come up with) the State Legislature, the body that ultimately oversees the Oregon Lottery, stands to lose $100 Million-plus from the said smokers mentioned above in fact #5 staying home or going to tribal casinos in Oregon and Washington State.
7) - It is also a known fact that legislators CANNOT STAND the idea of losing pork-barrel funds, especially from a ca$h-cow like Oregon Lottery's Video Crack when these smokers go elsewhere! Soooooo.......now, HOW are they going to make up that Hundred Mill??
8) - Oooooh, right: It takes like a hyper-majority to increase taxes or create new ones in Oregon......OH! OH! OH!! Wait a sec......Right, but, you CAN have your State Agencies *ahem* "adjust fees".......yeah.......Errrmmmm-hummm.....
So, that $68 per two-year car registration (registration is required by state law, so payment is guaranteed)??? Uhhhhhh.......wow, it might just well go up to $122 in 2009!
Errrmmm, that DEQ Emissions Test at $22 (also required by state statute)?? Try $40 in 2009!
MARK my words - NO new taxes, but some really clever , ahhhhh, "adjustments" in "fees" and "user costs"! This will partially make up the losses from the smokers staying home or going to see the Injuins when they hafta get their Gamblin' and Smokin' Joneses on!!
Now, the State Legislature will do this to protect THEIR losses from the smoking ban......
.....uhhhh, WHO'S gonna help take care of the Mom & Pop small pub owners from the drop in revenue that THEY incur from this smoking ban.......?
......anybody......anybody......Bueller....Bueller.....???
Thought not......
Hypocrisy....not even Oregon is immune from it.......
-E-
posted by CN250 at 10:47 PM
2 Comments:
The ultimate funny part of this smoking ban which is being put in place to protect people from second-hand smoke: instead of the people inhaling the second-hand smoke being the people who WILLINGLY go into the bar to partake of whatever vice, the people inhaling the smoke will instead be the people walking on the public sidewalks outside the bars and restaurants (oh no! the children!) as patrons hang out outside the front entrances of these establishments to get their smoke on.
Oh, the unintended consequences of nanny legislation ...
Literally? Naw, seriously....I don't think they'll be huge numbers of folks doing that (standing outside bars smoking)!
Like in Bufalo, and from what I've heard about in other NON-tropical climates that have smoking bans in bars, this is what will happen here -
A) - Most smokers will just stay home and drink, and the house-gathering of friends will experience a resurgance in popularity
AND
B) - There'll be "smoke-easys" that'll open up. They are (from what I've heard and read, anyways) ALL THE FUCK OVER THE PLACE in Seattle, and in Buffalo, there are two bars right next door to each other on a rather popular mid-town/downtown strip (that happens to hold an art festival every year) that suspiciously allow their patrons to smoke right out in the open with ZERO attempt to cover it up (which makes you wonder where that new Lexus came from that the County Health Director just got)......emmmm-hmmm. I think you know what two bars I'm talking about, we all used to go to one of 'em.....
-E-
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