THE OHIO SMOKING BAN NEEDS TO BE REVISED!

I believe in good friends, good times and supporting your community. But most importantly, I believe in becoming involved. If something is not right, don’t sit back and complain, become involved.

For these reasons, I ran and was elected the President of the Middletown Aerie #528 of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. The Eagles Motto is “People Helping People”. We are a private club and we have always given back to the local community by donating money and our member’s time. Over the past 4 years, we have donated over $500,000 to Local Charities. Thanks in part to the smoking ban, our Local Charities Donation are down $30,000 over this period last year. Our Sales Tax Payments to the State were down $5,000 over this period last year. The Smoking Ban, as it is written, is threatening our ability to support the Community, it is threatening our ability to keep our doors open. It is threatening our States ability to count on Tax Revenues.

Our business is off close to 30%, most of it can be attributed to the lack of participation by our members that smoke. The Anheuser-Busch distributor sales for on premise consumption locations is down 10%, but their overall sales are flat, which means that the smokers are buying at carry outs and drinking at home.

When it hit the ballot for voter approval, Private Clubs were supposed to be exempt. The fine print (not on the ballot summary that the voters read by the way) further clarified Private Clubs with NO PAID employees. So people voted for the bill thinking Private Clubs would be exempt, but that is not what happened.

The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the Ohio Department of Health, which argued that the smoking ban approved by voters in 2006 included an exemption for VFW halls, American Legion posts and other fraternal clubs. They rejected the appeal on the basis that the definition of “employee” includes “wages for compensation for labor”. An employee is not a volunteer.

Cigarettes are a LEGAL PRODUCT. They are sold in every Convenience Store, Grocery Store and Super Market in this state. I do not believe that the State should be able to tell private business that they cannot use, or have their client use a LEGALLY SOLD product on their premises. I work for CFR, Inc., we run several businesses, Rentacomputer.com, CSN1 Technologies, ComputerServiceNow.com, CameraSecurityNow.com, Tech-Army.org, MiddletownUSA.com, MainStreetMonroe.com and Xponex just to name a few. Where is the States intrusion into private business going to stop? Is the State going to tell us that we cannot sell monitors because they cause Eye Strain? Or keyboards because repeated use will cause Carpal Tunnel? I mean, right now, you can’t even use a Gas or Charcoal Grill if you live in an Apartment! WHERE IS IT GONG TO STOP?

The Smoking Voters were duped by the way this issue was presented on the Ballot. The Ohio Supreme Court was unwilling to touch such a Red Hot Issue, but Ohio does have 3 Senators with enough fortitude to stand up for the rights of the smokers, for the rights of private businessmen and for the private clubs. Senators Gary Cates (Butler County), Robert Schuler (Warren and Hamilton Counties) and Bill Seitz (Hamilton County) announced at the Middletown Moose Lodge on Tuesday, June 24, that they are introducing a bill to reflect what the voters actually voted on the first time. If passed, the bill would allow smoking at private clubs and family owned businesses.

Time will tell, it looks like this legislation may pass the Senate and the House, then we will see if our Governor has the fortitude to right a wrong.