Daniels

Creating a smoking ban in public places, including bars and restaurants, may not have been the best thing to do, according to state Secretary of State Randy Daniels.

While Daniels fell short of calling for the government to revisit the smoking ban, he said the current administration is cognizant of the need to be business friendly. “We want to be able to create an environment where all of our businesses can flourish where the burden of taxation and regulation is lessened,” he said. Governor Pataki has worked “very hard over the last nearly 12 years to do that; to create an environment to attract new development and keep what we have.”

Daniels did tell a Poughkeepsie audience recently that while he was in an upstate community near the Pennsylvania border, a restaurant owner told him the smoking ban was killing his business and as a result, he was planning on moving his eatery across the state line where smoking is allowed.