When Georgia's Gwinnett County repealed property rights by passing a restrictive county-wide smoking ban, Wild Bill's was banking on getting an exemption. But when it came to a vote, the County turned them down on the grounds that it wouldn't be fair to other businesses who don't get an exemption. (Kinda nullifies the definition of exemption, doesn't it?)

Dunn, the swing vote on a split commission, voted with Commissioners Kevin Kenerly and Marcia Neaton last week to delay a decision on the exemption, saying he wanted to refine it to limit the exemption to Wild Bill's, a 50,000-square-foot megaclub.

But at Tuesday's commission meeting, Dunn surprised observers by voting with Commissioner Bert Nasuti and Chairman Wayne Hill to reject the exemption for Wild Bill's. [...]

Wild Bill's sought an exemption from the smoking ban because it installed a $1 million ventilation system at the county's insistence to remove secondhand smoke, only to have the commission ban smoking in unincorporated Gwinnett on April 1.

The county insisted that they install a $1 Million ventalation system to qualify for an exemption. After the system was installed, they voted against them any way.

Whenever these smoking bans are proposed, lawmakers always claim it's in the business owners best interest. They claim that business actually increases, because the poor downtrodden non-smokers don't have any smoke free places to go. If that's true, why do you suppose a club would shell out a million bucks to try to get an exemption?