The Fraternal Order of the Eagles, a charitable outfit in Ithaca, New York, has applied for a waiver from the state smoking ban. Here’s why:

According to figures submitted to the Health Department, the Eagles revenue dropped from $92,343 in 2003 to $57,327 in 2004. The revenue drop almost crippled the organization’s ability to donate to charitable causes, members said. Donations went from $60,000 before the ban to $12,000 after it went into effect.

“It made it very difficult for us to pursue our charitable work,” said Rick Nelson, the club’s vice president. “But we still ran our fund-raisers and tried our best to help local charities first.”

[...]

Like many clubs and bars, the Eagles lost patrons following the state’s enactment of the smoking ban in 2003.

“One of the interesting things that has developed since the ban took effect is that people go to clubs where smoking is permitted,” Nelson said. “Some of our more militant smokers we can’t get back if they don’t have a smoke to go along with their beer at the bar.”

Me, I think a dip in charitable contributions and putting a few mom and pop joints out of business is a perfectly acceptable compromise if it means people like Kevin Drum can save money on their drycleaning bills.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 25th, 2005 at 11:14 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.