A bill in the General Assembly would have Indiana follow some examples from California and New York and require chain restaurants to make nutritional information available to customers at each location. Republican Tim Brown of Crawfordsville, a physician, tells why he voted against the bill in committee:
He said the costs of complying with such a law would lead to job cuts in an industry that was suffering like so many others during this recession.
"I think the margin of return of the restaurant industry and the food services industry is very small and you add on one more cost, they can't pass it on because it is so competitive," Brown said.
Yes, such a bill would be stupid. It would be like hitting automobile manufacturers with tough new mileage requirements just when they're struggling to even stay in business. Who'd do something that dumb?
Well. The bill passed out of committee 6-4, that's who. The bill would define a chain as any outfit with 10 or more locations. Even in California the bar is set at 20 or more locations.
