Ban Damage: DC Economic Hardship Waivers

D.C. Grants First Exemption to Smoking Ban

October 22, 2007
The D.C. government has granted its first exemption to the smoking ban for a bar in Cleveland Park. Owners of the cigar bar Aroma say they had a 20 percent drop in business within six months after the city passed a smoking ban for all bars and restaurants last January. That makes the bar eligible to apply for an exemption.

Curt Large, of the bar’s parent company Bedrock Management, says Aroma had to go through a rigorous process. Owners had to submit sales and tax records and prove the fall in revenues wasn’t caused by a sudden increase in prices or fewer operating hours.

The exemption gives Aroma the right to allow smoking for up to three years.

Large says the company isn’t pursuing exemptions for any of its other taverns. He says sales are down at Bedrock Billiards and Atomic Billiards. But Buffalo Billiards and Mackey’s Pub “are doing better than ever.”

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D.C. hospitality and nightlife establishments experiencing depressed revenues equal to or in excess of the required 15% economic loss as a result of the mandatory smoking ban should consider submitting an application for an Economic Hardship Waiver.??

For further information on qualifying for an Economic Hardship Waiver and to review the application requirements, go online and visit the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) web site at the following direct link:
http://RAMW.org/content.php?m=4⊂=43&id;=309

For additional information or if you have any questions, please contact Patrick Horn at RAMW:

?? Patrick Horn
?? Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington
?? Email: patrick@RAMW.org>
?? – or –
?? Office: 202.331.5990

Letters to the Editor: Wed, Aug. 8, 2008

D.C.’s mandatory smoking ban has not been effective

Re: “More people are drinking, fewer smoking,” Local, Aug. 3

A disingenuous effort by D.C. agency officials to utilize irrelevant tax statistics to suggest only that “things are not as bad as feared” under the mandatory smoking ban is revealing.

Combining alcohol tax revenues from all sources — including retail stores — is designed to mask the widely reported economic harm to local nightlife establishments. The purported increase of 1.6 percent is actually a significant economic loss after also factoring in both inflation and increases in alcohol wholesale costs.

The only accurate measure is a comparison adjusted for these factors that excludes the hundreds of alcohol-licensed businesses that were already nonsmoking before the ban. In addition, local bars have found it necessary to raise consumer prices to offset losses, further obscuring the smoking ban’s real impact.

The myth that mandatory smoking bans do not hurt local businesses is usually more cleverly constructed. This embarrassing attempt by D.C. officials merely serves to illustrate the truth.

Mark Lee
Washington

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Report: More people are drinking, fewer smoking

2007-08-03
Michael Neibauer, The Examiner

When the District’s virtually all-encompassing smoking ban took effect in January, hospitality industry leaders feared the worst: collapsing revenues, lost jobs and shuttered businesses.

But based on the city’s cash collections through June, it appears those fears were unfounded. Alcoholic beverage tax revenues are up slightly, 1.6 percent, for fiscal 2007, while cigarette tax dollars are collapsing, down 19.8 percent in June and 7.5 percent for the year.

So more people are drinking and fewer are smoking, or so it seems.

“This is an indication that things are not as bad as feared by the restaurant and hospitality organizations,” said Leila Abrar, spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Health. “If you look at other jurisdictions with the law the District has, it shows the same thing.”

The District collected $15.6 million in cigarette tax revenue between Oct. 1, 2006, and June 30, compared with $16.9 million during the same period last year. Abrar said the District soon will launch an advertising campaign to promote its 1-800-QUIT-NOW hotline in hopes “that the trend continues.”

That’s not to say there have been no negative effects.

“What we’re hearing is that restaurants/taverns that are more bar-centric are feeling ill effects, but restaurants that are restaurant-centric are not, other than the ancillary consequences like the litter and noise outside,” said Lynne Breaux, executive director of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

Aroma, a cigar bar and tavern in Cleveland Park, is the first District establishment to apply for an economic-hardship waiver under the smoke-free law. Cigar bars are exempt from the ban if at least 10 percent of their revenues come from the sale of tobacco products, and Aroma didn’t make the cut.

Its receipts have crashed since January, co-owner Curt Large said.

“A neighborhood bar like Aroma, it’s always been part of the ambiance,” Large said.

Under the smoke-free law, a hardship waiver is obtainable only if revenues fall at least 15 percent over three consecutive months, compared with the same three months in the previous two years.
mneibauer@dcexaminer.com