Ummmm, no. Especially not if you think the smoking ban is what caused the high tax rate.

There are so many factors that go into determining the sales tax rate, that it's hopelessly naive to assume that the existence or absence of a non-smoking law will make a serious impact. You act as though the only thing that changed in Chicago to change the sales tax rate was the smoking ban. You don't think that maybe, just maybe, other things going on in the city may have made a difference? There are other things going on in that city, aren't there?

Believe what you want to believe. But the writing is on the wall....