Can We Post:Sheila's Letter to House Rep

From: Sheila Kromer
To: Carol McFarlane
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 5:48 PM
Subject: Looking for Your Support
Dear Carol,

I am writing to ask you to support HF 4032, a bill that asks for smoking exemptions for small bar establishments, VFW's and American Legions. These establishments are being hit extremely hard financially, some are barely holding on and others have closed. I'm sure you are aware of the current trend of "theater performances" in bars. If businesses were doing so well with non-smoking, theatrical performances (that may include smoking) would be non-existent. I know that some people will point to the economy as the culprit here, however, I would disagree with that and I have the numbers to prove it. I don't diasgree that the economy plays a role in the business downturn but it is by far not the main reason for the downturn. I would like to share some of my liquor sale's tax numbers with you.


Below are our %'s of loss or gain based on liquor sales tax. These numbers are based on comparing the same month, year to year.

Jan 06 compared to Jan 07 our liquor sales tax numbers increased +26%
Feb 06 compared to Jan 07 our our liquor sales tax numbers increased +58%

Dec 06 compared to Dec 07 our liquor sales tax numbers decreased -21.5%
Jan 07 compared to Jan 08 our liquor sales tax numbers decreased -26%
Feb 07compared to Feb 08 our liquor sales tax numbers decreased -2%

January is always our busiest month of the entire year and weekends are always busier than weekdays by far. We started theater nights on Feb 9th, a Saturday night. (unadvertised). There was 1 weekend in February that we did not have theater nights at all, 2 weekends that we only had it on Saturday nights, and 1 weekend that we had it on both Friday & Saturday nights.


Can you explain what happened in February? This is not anecdotal, but fact. I would encourage you to visit the website www.freedomtoact.com , you will find many stories from various establishments there. These stories tell the real truth about the devastion that is currently going on. It not only affects bar owners and their families but employees, vendors, distributors, and the entertainment industry to name a few. Even though we have done considerably better in February (and March is looking good too), we have just had to lay off one employee, cut the hours of two other employees, and close 3 days a week. Unfortunatley, the terrible downturn since the enactment of the smoking ban in October has hit us really hard and we have not been able to make up for it yet.

I would appreciate any support that you can give in this matter.

Thank-you so much for your consideration and time. Looking forward to your response.
Sheila Kromer
3695 Midland Ave.
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
651-426-8743 home