Reply #4: In NYC, despite dire warnings of harm to businesses, quite the opposite occurred.

[BrklynLiberal]

http://no-smoke.org/document.php?id=210

New York City: Business is booming in New York City's bars and restaurants with tax receipts up 12% since the introduction and enactment of the city's Smoke-Free Indoor Air law in March 2003. Figures from the city's Department of Finance show $12 million paid in taxes from bars and restaurants from April through September of 2003, compared to $10.8 million in 2002. Department of Finance Commissioner, Martha E. Stark said one early economic trend was encouraging since the policy was introduced last March: "New York's bars and restaurants paid the city 12% more in business taxes in the months since the ban began than they did in the corresponding six-month period in 2002." In addition, a 2003 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene study designed to measure the ordinance's effect on employment rates in smokefree establishments, found a gain of 10,000 jobs since the implementation of the smokefree air act.12