Sometimes West Virginians have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and so it was last week when about 50 Kanawha County bar owners and patrons protested the county health department's ban on public smoking.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Sometimes West Virginians have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and so it was last week when about 50 Kanawha County bar owners and patrons protested the county health department's ban on public smoking.
During the protest, bar owners were quoted as saying their post-ban business was down 30 percent or more, with even more severe losses in limited video lottery machine revenue. One bar owner claimed her video slots revenues were down 69 percent for the month.
(From a public policy standpoint, I don't think they're exactly taking the moral high ground by complaining that the smoking ban is also reducing liquor consumption and gambling in the county.)
However, July revenue figures from the state Lottery for Kanawha County video lottery establishments show that the drop in limited video lottery business was nowhere near as bad as the bar owners are claiming.
For July 2008, total revenue for the 154 video lottery establishments in Kanawha County was $3,024,520 ($11,385,825 cash-in, $8,361,305 cash-out). That was down 13 percent from June 2008 revenues of $3,412,531 ($12,525,925 cash-in, $9,113,393 cash-out), but still nowhere close to the losses the bar owners are claiming.
However, the trend has been for July LVL revenues to drop off compared to June, presumably as bar patronage declines with vacations and the July 4 holidays.
Compared with countywide LVL revenues for previous (smoking permitted) Julys, the downturn is even less severe.
July 2008 revenues were down 7 percent compared with July 2007 ($3,239,206), and down only 3 percent compared to July 2006 ($3,111,678).
In fact, the July 2008 revenues came in 6 percent higher than July 2005 ($2,859,949) and a whopping 21 percent higher than in July 2004 ($2,492,160).
In other words, video lottery revenues from the machines in the smoke-free bars this July were $532,360 higher than in July 2004 - which seems to negate the bar owners' claim that people won't play the slots if they can't smoke.
Meanwhile, as for Jean Angle, owner of the Pour House, who was quoted as saying her bar's lottery business was down 69 percent in July, the Lottery's figures beg to differ.
In June, the Pour House had revenues of $15,772, according to the Lottery, and July revenues of $14,056, an actual decline of about 11 percent.
So the bar owners can put those numbers in their pipes and smoke them ...
nn
Speaking of the poor house, a memo went out last week to Division of Culture and History employees that any expenditures from the state museum renovation fund - including P-Card purchases - must be approved in writing by both Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith and by Martha McKee, chief of staff to Education and the Arts Secretary Kay Goodwin.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Sometimes West Virginians have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and so it was last week when about 50 Kanawha County bar owners and patrons protested the county health department's ban on public smoking.
During the protest, bar owners were quoted as saying their post-ban business was down 30 percent or more, with even more severe losses in limited video lottery machine revenue. One bar owner claimed her video slots revenues were down 69 percent for the month.
(From a public policy standpoint, I don't think they're exactly taking the moral high ground by complaining that the smoking ban is also reducing liquor consumption and gambling in the county.)
However, July revenue figures from the state Lottery for Kanawha County video lottery establishments show that the drop in limited video lottery business was nowhere near as bad as the bar owners are claiming.
For July 2008, total revenue for the 154 video lottery establishments in Kanawha County was $3,024,520 ($11,385,825 cash-in, $8,361,305 cash-out). That was down 13 percent from June 2008 revenues of $3,412,531 ($12,525,925 cash-in, $9,113,393 cash-out), but still nowhere close to the losses the bar owners are claiming.
However, the trend has been for July LVL revenues to drop off compared to June, presumably as bar patronage declines with vacations and the July 4 holidays.
Compared with countywide LVL revenues for previous (smoking permitted) Julys, the downturn is even less severe.
July 2008 revenues were down 7 percent compared with July 2007 ($3,239,206), and down only 3 percent compared to July 2006 ($3,111,678).
In fact, the July 2008 revenues came in 6 percent higher than July 2005 ($2,859,949) and a whopping 21 percent higher than in July 2004 ($2,492,160).
In other words, video lottery revenues from the machines in the smoke-free bars this July were $532,360 higher than in July 2004 - which seems to negate the bar owners' claim that people won't play the slots if they can't smoke.
Meanwhile, as for Jean Angle, owner of the Pour House, who was quoted as saying her bar's lottery business was down 69 percent in July, the Lottery's figures beg to differ.
In June, the Pour House had revenues of $15,772, according to the Lottery, and July revenues of $14,056, an actual decline of about 11 percent.
So the bar owners can put those numbers in their pipes and smoke them ...
nn
Speaking of the poor house, a memo went out last week to Division of Culture and History employees that any expenditures from the state museum renovation fund - including P-Card purchases - must be approved in writing by both Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith and by Martha McKee, chief of staff to Education and the Arts Secretary Kay Goodwin.
While insiders say that's intended to clip Reid-Smith's spending authority, McKee insisted it's merely a clerical formality.
"Basically, we wanted to make sure as we go forward with a new fiscal year, we wanted to make sure we had all of our figures correct," she said.
nn
Refurbishment of the governor's conference room in the Capitol is nearing completion, at a cost to date of $67,991, according to Diane Holley in the Department of Administration.
Major expenses include $36,475 to the David Edward Co. for 45 custom-made (and yet undelivered) leather chairs embossed with either the state seal or the seal of the governor's office.
Also, $12,189 to Nitro Carpet Outlet for elegance-style Kane carpeting imported from Belgium in both the conference room and adjacent hallway, and $7,554 to Wallpapers in Stock for wallpaper borders, window dressings and Roman shades for the conference room and for wallpaper borders in the hallway.
Another $5,762 went to W.Q. Watters contractors for plaster repair and painting, and $5,449 to Furniture Medic Inc. to repair and refinish the large conference table.
Still to be billed or bid out is teleconferencing equipment for the room, and three new HVAC units.
nn
Finally, a little clarification from last week's column item for Radford University grads (including Lara Ramsburg in the governor's office, and my brother, who has been posting critical comments about it on the Gazette Web site.)
While Radford did not make the Princeton Review's list of the 368 best colleges in America, it did make the review's less-exclusive list of the 629 best colleges in the United States, by region.
Five West Virginia schools also made the regional lists. In addition to West Virginia University (which obviously made the best 368), the best regional colleges (according to the Princeton Review) in the state are: Bethany College, Concord University, Mountain State University in Beckley, and West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Regrettably, no other state colleges or universities made the expanded list.
Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 348-1220.
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The "percentage" decrease of "total" revenues of bar owners from all sales (liquor, food, etc.) is not necessarily the same as that from lottery sales. It would depend upon the percentage of total sales derived from lottery sales. If quite high, his conclusions are more likely to be valid. If low, not so.
Secondly, most businesses expect increased sales each year to cover increased expenses and hopefully make more profit. Thus a more accurate way to assess the impact upon sales for a single month compared to the same month last year, would be to adjust for the past years average annual percentage increases in sale, if any.