The Council believes that the ordinance as it applies to smoking in bars is detrimental to business.
Wamac City Council plans to fight smoking ban
By Matthew BarbaSentinel News Staff
January 8, 2008
WAMAC – Wamac City Council plans to fight the new smoking ban.
In a unanimous vote, the Wamac City Council chose to pass a resolution in which the city will draft a letter to announce its opposition to the Smoke-Free Illinois ordinance that went into effect on Jan. 1 of this year. The Council believes that the ordinance as it applies to smoking in bars is detrimental to business.
“Businesses can’t afford this. People want to go to bars and smoke, and I just don’t think they will with this bill in effect,” Wamac Mayor ‘Butch’ Mathus said.
The Council plans to send the letter that they draft to all of the state legislative leaders as well as Governor Blagojevich’s office. “We plan on fighting this adamantly and it’s not right for the state to come into a business, telling them how they can and can’t treat their customers. We will be vocal on this matter because of the severe detriment it serves to our community and because it’s not right to do this to people,” Mathus said.
Concern was raised over what the state would attempt to ban next, and while only speculation could be raised, the Council was not happy with how the state has handled this particular piece of legislation.
Criticism of the ordinance also arose from the fact that the no-smoking ban is an unfunded government mandate, meaning that the city of Wamac has to foot the bill when covering the costs of enforcing the ban.
