Some Smaller Bars Say Smoking Ban Hurting Business

TAYLOR (WWJ) -  A group trying to repeal the smoking ban filled a small bar in Taylor Monday. Stating a 45-percent drop in liquor sales at the All Around Bar in Taylor, for example, where nearly half the staff is laid off, the rest taking voluntary pay cuts, and bar hours cut to Wednesday through Friday and a half day on Saturday.

Steve Mace with Protect Private Property Rights in Michigan, PPPRM, says that's just some of the wreck that is the smoking Ban.

"Bar Club Keno sales are down over a hundred million dollars. So, that's a hundred million less for schools, for social services," said Mace.

Small bars have been hurt most says another supporter of repealing the smoking ban.

"Now we have the data and we need to go back and revisit this law," said State Representative Doug Geiss, a Democrat from Taylor,.

Geiss says he's working on a smoking ban revision if not a repeal, but says it'll take a lot more than just him in Lansing to make a change.