Long Island, NY is broken into two counties - Nassau and Suffolk. Nassau County passed their Anti-smoking law and it goes into effect on March 1st.
The much larger Suffolk County was waiting to vote on the bill, which would pass, but was meeting alot of resistance from bar & restaurant owners. So they reached the following compromise:
Newsday
January 10, 2003
Bar and restaurant owners who had led the fight against a proposed far-reaching smoking ban in Suffolk County have agreed to support the bill if implementation is delayed until 2006.
Legis. Brian Foley (D-Blue Point), who sponsored the bill, said he would change the date the law would go into effect for bars and restaurants to Jan. 1, 2006, from the proposed Jan. 1, 2004.
Calling the anticipated endorsement from the Suffolk County Restaurant and Tavern Association a "major breakthrough," Foley said his colleagues would approve the bill, which has been stalled since November.
Suffolk and Westchester are considering joining Nassau County and New York City in passing some of the toughest anti-smoking legislation in the nation, outlawing smoking in virtually every workplace, including bars and restaurants.
"We have an agreement ... After three years, restaurants and bars in Suffolk County would be smoke-free," Jerry Cusack, an executive board member of the restaurant group, said yesterday.
The extra time would allow restaurant owners to recoup some of the investment they made several years ago when they installed separate smoking rooms to comply with the law now on the books
Nassau Legis. Brian Muellers (D-Glen Cove), one of the sponsors of that county's bill, said, "I'm glad to see that Suffolk County eventually will have a law that is very close to what we have in Nassau County," but said waiting until 2006 was "unfortunate."
Well, you knew it was going to happen, so if it could be delayed 3 years, so be it.
