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| Proposed San Antonio Smoking Ban Called 'Racist' (618984) | |||
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Proposed San Antonio Smoking Ban Called 'Racist' |
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Posted by Dand124 on Fri Jun 11 11:13:53 2010 http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=119078&article=7226076The effort to ban smoking in all workplaces across the city appears to be going up in smoke, as prominent advertising executive Lionel Sosa tonight will brand the proposal as racist, 1200 WAOI news reports. "The proposed ordinance is economically discriminatory to members of the Hispanic community," Sosa will tell council, according to a text of his letter obtained by 1200 WOAI news. "When you look at the population of the small area bars, poll halls, and VFW halls that populate our community, you will see the overwhelming majority of those that will see their freedom of choice stripped from them by this ordinance are Hispanic-owned businesses." Prominent Texas economist Ray Perryman has also written a letter to city council that blasts an Institute for Health Promotion Research Study which concludes that a smoking ban would have no impact on the operations of the businesses which now allow smoking, but would be forced to change policies under the proposed law. "When laws are suddenly changed, winners and losers are randomly created through a process that has nothing to do with business acumen," Perryman writes. "Such capriciousness discourages investment and creates losses for certain enterprises as a result of the change even in a case where overall spending remains unchanged or even increases." Perryman says 'capricious' changes in smoking policy would discourage investment, reduce the profitability of businesses, and lead to layoffs. Both Perryman and Sosa say that the decision on whether to patronize a smoking or a non smoking establishment should be made by the customer, not by government. "The basic theory of consumer behavior revolves around the actions of consumers in making purchasing choices to maximize their level of satisfaction within the constraints of their financial capacity," Perryman writes. "When the set of available alternatives is restricted, overall satisfaction is lowered. In addition to causing economic and fiscal losses to the City of san Antonio, arbitrary harms to existing businesses and potential reductions in local competitiveness, the ordinance has the effect of reducing economic welfare for local residents." Sosa agrees. "Expansion of this ordinance will erode sales tax income from the City's coffers," Sosa says. "Please let San Antonio be a leader, not a follower, of the erosion of our remaining freedoms." The idea to ban smoking entirely inside all workplaces, including restaurants, bars, pool and BINGO halls, VFW and American Legion halls, and even cigar bars is clearly losing steam at City Hall, which Councilman Ray Lopez now opposing it. "I think what we have in place now, is a pretty good ordinance," he said. |
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