With efforts to ban workplace cigarette smoking still stuck in City Council after more than a year of maneuvering, a longtime foe of antismoking laws yesterday proposed a compromise: tax breaks for bars and restaurants that go smoke-free.
Republican City Councilman Jack Kelly wants to eliminate the gross-receipts tax for any liquor-licensed establishment that bans smoking. He said the bill would take action against the use of tobacco while letting owners permit smoking if they deem it good for the bottom line.
I'm fairly on the fence about smoking bans in bars, generally deciding that a ban with relatively light enforcement/penalties for violators, especially for smaller establishments, would probably be about right. As taxes go the gross receipts one in Philadelphia is a pretty crappy one, and it wouldn't cost the city too much in lost revenue to hold it out as a carrot for establishments to choose to ban smoking voluntarily.