Now
A Few Clouds
82.0°
High
82°
Low
61°
Full Forecast

Coupon

Jobs

Cars

Homes

Rentals

Alerts

Subscribe
Home > News > Local
Bookmark Us   •   Make Us Your Homepage

Deena Winter: Smoking ban effects on sales tax negligible

Comments 22 comment(s)  
E-mail Story E-mail Story
Print Story Print Story
Share  Share
Text Size: 
Tools Sponsor

Tuesday, Jan 15, 2008 - 11:56:20 pm CST

 What about the smoking ban?

That’s what some readers wanted to know after the state released the results of an inquiry into Lincoln’s lagging sales tax collections.

The state Department of Revenue concluded that Lincoln was underserved by retail prior to a building boom in the 1990s that led to double-digit increases in sales tax revenue.

Story Photo

But those days are over, and the city is now seeing more modest growth that’s in line with the state and Omaha.

A few readers wanted to know why the city’s 2004 smoking ban wasn’t mentioned as a possible factor. The city’s net sales tax collections have increased less than 1 percent each of the past two years.

David Dearmont, administrator of the research division of the Revenue Department, said his department didn’t dig into the smoking ban’s effect, but sales tax numbers for bars and restaurants did dip a little in 2004-05. He noticed that at first bars appeared to have been hurt by the smoking ban, but restaurants did a little better. Omaha’s numbers also dipped that year, he said, and that city didn’t have a ban.

The bar and restaurant numbers since have come back.

“I think people got used to it,” he said of the ban.

And the survey says…

Following in the footsteps of many cities that poll residents to find out what they think of the job their municipal government is doing, the mayor is considering conducting a citizen survey in the next few months.

If you judged citizens’ opinions based on who shows up for City Hall meetings, or the online comments on city government stories, you might assume there’s a lot of discontent out there. Some city leaders believe citizen surveys offer a much more balanced look at how the masses feel about certain issues.

Mayoral aide Rick Hoppe said the city is putting specifications together now to try to find a company that does these kinds of surveys, preferably with Nebraska ties.

They will likely try to gauge what people like and dislike about city government, what they think it should accomplish and how citizens want to finance government. What are people willing to pay for, and what aren’t they? Crucial questions as the city faces either a property tax increase or more belt-tightening.

Intersection safety beefed up

The intersection that was the site of a tragic year-end car accident will get some safety enhancements.

Flags will be added to stop signs to draw more attention to them, and rumble strips are being added at the intersection of 56th Street and Yankee Hill Road, where a 12-month-old girl was killed and her mother seriously injured. Police said the woman ran a stop sign and was hit by another car.

Shifting to new budgeting style

City departments have their budget mandate, and it’s not much different than the one they’ve had in the past several years around this time: Come up with a budget that cuts spending by 3.5 percent.

They’ve had to mold budgets with similar spending reductions for several years, as sales tax revenue has lagged in Lincoln. But this year, Beutler is shifting to “outcome-based budgeting,” which will require departments to determine their budget outcomes by Feb. 1 so he can begin deciding which outcomes to use while putting the budget together.

It will take two years for the city to shift to this new budgeting style, and this year Beutler said he’ll focus on such security-related departments as police, fire, 911 and health departments.

Bowen lands at UNMC

The former chief of staff for Mayor Coleen Seng, Mark Bowen, landed a job in Omaha following his dismissal when Beutler took office. The December issue of a University of Nebraska Medical Center publication indicates Bowen is government affairs director for the medical center.

Mayor: We’ll finish Denton Road

Mayor Chris Beutler has decided to go ahead and finish West Denton Road near southwest Lincoln.

The road has been a concern to residents who use it and see its current detour as a safety problem. A quarter-mile portion of the road has been closed since last year and was to be rebuilt to connect with U.S. 77 without a curve.

Developers of Southwest Village at U.S. 77 and West Denton had planned to finish the road as part of their agreement with the city, but the shopping center project is on hold because Wal-Mart decided not to build a Supercenter there. At one time, three big box stores were planned.

On Monday, Beutler said the city will pave the quarter-mile, and it should be done between July 4 and Thanksgiving.

The city will use about $1.1 million that was set aside from highway allocation bond proceeds. The city hopes to be reimbursed the estimated three-quarters of a million dollars through impact fees.

She said it

“What are you doing reading Stiletto magazine?” — Councilwoman Robin Eschliman, after Urban Development Director David Landis “accidentally” put a copy of Stiletto magazine on the overhead instead of a map. He did it because the new Lincoln women’s magazine features Eschliman on the cover.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.


$1 Sunday Delivery - Subscribe Today!
Local > Back to Top of Story

Post Your Comment

Standards and Rules
All posts to JournalStar.com are subject to our Terms and Standards.
Your posted comment will appear after it has been approved.
Frequently asked questions about story commenting.
(optional)
   
Hide Comments Hide Comments   Newest First Newest First  
c wrote on January 16, 2008 6:16 am:
" Its always good for city government to minimize the smoking ban.... I wonder if they looked at the tax income INCREASE in Denton and Waverly.... what about Crete? Most of the smokers that I know are happily taking their money to bars that permit smoking and stopping in those towns on their way home for gas, soft drinks and you guessed it, more cigarettes. I am a recent non-smoker and I have to tell you, for all of wanting smokers to pick up the taxes you're all more than happy to shun them right out of your community. Oh and with the healthcare costs being higher because of smokers.... the majority of open heart surgery patients in Nebraska are non-smokers of 10 years or more.... but they're helping keep the restaurants open with their prime consumption of saturated fat and trans fats so maybe you should all work on banning restaurants entirely... no smoking and no rich or fatty foods.... sounds reasonable to me. "
SHEP wrote on January 16, 2008 8:27 am:
" A lot of my friends go to Davey and Valpraiso cause they can smoke. I think Lincoln Government officials will tell you anything so they don't have to eat crow. I know in my heart that the smoking ban crippled Lincoln big time, think about it, why wouldn't any smoker burn a little gas to be comfortable, (the price of 1 coctail) to get to these locations outside the city? I think you all need to look where this bad information is coming from, probably Ken Svoboda. "
Debra wrote on January 16, 2008 8:35 am:
" Sour grapes, c. I wish smokers (I know, you've quit, and congratulations for that) would face the fact that their personal decision to smoke isn't the problem, it's the non-smokers who get their second-hand smoke that caused the voters to choose to ban smoking in public places in Lincoln. Yes, THE VOTERS chose the ban, not city government. Smokers are not being shunned - just their smoke. If they want to take their money to surrounding towns so they can smoke, it's a free country. I just wonder how many of those people make their kids and spouses tolerate their smoke in order to be able to spend time together. It's a jealous addiction, and when faced with spending time around a loved one's smoke or not around them at all, it's the families that make the sacrifice, not the smoker. (Yes, there are also considerate smokers who only smoke outdoors when around non-smokers, but either they are the vast minority or they just don't comment on here.) Many smokers seem to think it's all about their rights being violated. When they can figure a way to keep their second-hand smoke to themselves, let's talk again about the smoking ban. The need for it would be gone, wouldn't it? But then what would they have to feel persecuted about? "
Let it go wrote on January 16, 2008 8:45 am:
" You would think the bitter smokers (i.e. the vocal minority) would let the ban go already. The tax effects were neglible, business was not dramatically impacted, and employees and customers are no longer subjected to disgusting smoke and odors.

If the smoking ban is so terrible why did 2/3 of the city vote FOR it? "
russell wrote on January 16, 2008 9:33 am:
" It is interesting that the County can install rumble bars on high speed roads (compared to city speeds) but not the City. MR. Casady thinks they cause accidents but I wish they would be tried on my residential street. "
Grundle wrote on January 16, 2008 9:57 am:
" It's funny that a few commenters mentioned that they see a lot of smokers going to bars outside of Lincoln, because all my non-smoking friends tell me is how much more they enjoy coming to the bars in Lincoln as opposed to bars in towns with no smoking ban. I've been to the bars a few times lately, and they never seem to be short on customers, except maybe the old dive bars that depended on the all-day drinker/smoker to make their living. "
pac wrote on January 16, 2008 10:33 am:
" I think the solution to this Lincoln vs. the rest of the state in regards to the smoking ban is for the state legislature to do the right thing and IMPLEMENT A STATEWID SMOKING BAN! I get tired of reading all the whining about how Lincoln's economy is so bad because of the smoking ban (which is a farce). Let's even the playing field, so to speak, so we can take that weak and pointless argument off the table once and for all. "
Matt wrote on January 16, 2008 11:18 am:
" So smokers now drive out of Lincoln in order to smoke and drink at the same time. I can only assume then that you are DUI and I hope you get busted big time before you cause an accident. All for a puff with a beer. "
WP wrote on January 16, 2008 11:23 am:
" So, the smoking ban has hurt businesses so much? Really, bc I just talked to the daughter of the owner of one of Lincoln's & Omaha's biggest sportsbar franchises & she said that the business is so much better because of the smoking ban. So, obviously, you smokers will continue to be bitter & just write about your opinions & not actually the facts.

As mentioned before, only the small dive bars have really had a decline in business, but who really wants to go there anyway. "
Realist wrote on January 16, 2008 1:16 pm:
" My neighbor (a stinky smoker himself) owns one of the large sports bars of Lincoln. He also says that sales, and customers, are "WAY up" (his words) since the ban. He said that he wouldn't go back to being a smoking establishment even if the ban was somehow reversed (which it would never be anyway). "
VOLUNTEER wrote on January 16, 2008 1:19 pm:
" I volunteered for 15 hours ringing bells at the salvation army kettles, and never in my life had I seen such disgusting behavior of smokers. They seem to light up getting out of their car and before going shopping they stand in doorways and try to get that last puff then toss their butt anywhere they please. Lets not stop, lets ban smoking in public everywhere. I now turn in smokers that discard their butts out the window of their cars 1-877-665-4887 and so should you. "
Thor wrote on January 16, 2008 2:07 pm:
" To answer Let it Go about why 2/3 of the city voting for it, in my personal opinion, when it was put on the ballot, it was confusing to a degree (my stepmother voted for it, not realizing she was voting for the ban) and possibly deliberately written this way. This is just my opinion. I'm not a smoker, but voted against the ban for a lot of reasons. I, too, think the city has suffered greatly from this ban, as far as bars go. Bars should be allowed to have smoking for gosh sakes. "
Beth wrote on January 16, 2008 6:05 pm:
" Mayor, please take into consideration the elderly of Lincoln when you write your budget. The "boomers" are all hitting retirement age when these services that they've paid for for years will finally now be used. Let's make Lincoln a great place for people of all ages to live. "
RRB wrote on January 17, 2008 7:48 am:
" I dine out now twice as much as I did before the ban. How disgusting was that (to be eating in a sports bar while inhaling all that second hand smoke)? So glad we banned it. "
Say Debra...... wrote on January 17, 2008 8:47 am:
" It's not about the rights of smokers being violated. What about the business owners that pay the rent, taxes, insurance and everything else that goes along with their business??? Shouldn't THEY have the RIGHT to allow whoever they want to in their store WITHOUT government telling them who they can have??? Case in point....Cliffs' Smoke Shop. If a non-smoker has the unmitigated gall to walk in there and complain about the smoke the too bad for them....it's stated in BIG BOLD LETTERS that it's...guess what...a SMOKE SHOP!!!!!! And, by the way, this was turned DOWN by voters THREE times before it was passed. Juts a case of the city council getting what they want any way they want. "
tom issaquaj wrote on January 17, 2008 9:45 am:
" The ban is good even for smokers that own businesses that used to allow smoking but now is banned. I would imagine the owners are realizing that they don't have as much to clean now due to the no smoking ban. I haven't seen any smoke eating machines on E-Bay yet!!! "
BYOB wrote on January 17, 2008 10:09 am:
" To Volunteer; Let me get this right, if a smoker stood in the doorway and finished his cigarette OUTSIDE, it discusted you ? The thing is, he or she paid almost .20 cents each for that cig and to just toss it is wastful, but how did you rate them? they were a bad smoker if they gave your little red bucket change and they were a good smoker if they put greenback bills in it? Smoker or not, for over 40 years I have always gave to the Salvation Army until now when I found out that I discusted the bell ringer, I'm done donating after all these years and think I should have used your opinionated red bucket for an ashtray. "
To Salvation Army wrote on January 17, 2008 10:23 am:
" Your bell ringers don't like smokers and report them whenever they can.
I appeal to all smokers, don't put you change and money in the red kettles at Christmas time, it might have an odor of smoke on it. Instead, I think I'll drop a hand full of cigarette butts in it when I go by. "
New to Lincoln wrote on January 17, 2008 1:22 pm:
" I don't know who is trying to blow smoke up where but if you have been to any bar in Lincoln before and after the ban you would have to be blind or stupid not to notice that there is only half to three quarters of the people there. It is possible that the ones that are there are drinking enough to make the sales tax stay the same, but I don't think so. "
Wow wrote on January 17, 2008 2:16 pm:
" Apparently the last couple of people have a hard time reading. VOLUNTEER was stating that the disgusting part is how many smokers think that the pavement, sidewalk, flower bed, whatever....is their personal trash can. I don't care if you smoke outside...I do care when I see a pile of cigarette butts laying everywhere. Maybe a few tickets and associated fines for littering would help clear up this problem.... "
K wrote on January 17, 2008 2:45 pm:
" I am glad to see that the smoking ban has stuck. The number of drinkers has not gone down, please remember that we live in a college town. Just go down to 14th & O Streets on a Friday or Saturday and you can clearly see that the bars have not struggled. Most of the bars have put out some very nice heated smoking areas so that the smokers don't even get cold when they smoke, yet they don't have to blow smoke in everyone else's face. "
Intrepid wrote on January 17, 2008 8:09 pm:
" It should be fairly easy to get tax reports for tobacco and alcohol sales to compare before and after the smoking ban. Those numbers should be more descriptive of what's happening in Lincoln and Lancaster County than sales tax figures. I'm not a drinker so the bars didn't lose any money on me, but my friends and I are doing more in-home entertaining. I'd rather have them smoke in my garage than out standing in the cold. They aren't criminals! "

Ads by Yahoo!