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News Summary

Business Up At Restaurants After Smoking Banned

Publication Date: 2005-03-09
  • Author:AP
  • Publication:WCVB-Ch. 5 (Boston, MA)
Business has increased in Massachusetts restaurants since a statewide workplace smoking ban went into effect last July, according to a leading indicator.

Some restaurateurs had predicted that the law, which included a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, would drive down business since customers could no longer light up with meals.

But revenues from the state's 5 percent meal tax went up, not down, after the law took effect last July 5, The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass., reported.

State Department of Revenue figures indicate that meal tax receipts were up in each of the last six months of 2004 compared to the same period in 2003, including a 10.6 percent increase in August, the first full month after the law took effect, over the previous August...

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