Three cheers for Wisconsin's Governor Jim Doyle. If his proposal for a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants and taverns and a $1.25 tax a pack on cigarettes is adopted, it will:
1) Help curb teen smoking, which is highly responsive to price
2) Reduce damage to non-smoking patrons and employees
3) Lower costs for the state's medicaid program
4) Finance the costs that remain with the cig tax, freeing up health funds for CHIP or other health priorities
As a smug non-smoker, I've loved being able to go to bars without someone blowing smoke in my face and on my clothes in NYC. All the doomsaying from tavern owners that this will destroy their business turned out to be overblown there. A year later, some where saying their increases in family business more than compensated for any disgruntled smokers who chose to drink and smoke at home.
I'm still waiting for a WI transfat tax though. Since 2003, it is no longer the fattest state in the union...but that's because the other states gained weight.
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