Central New Yorkers heard what many are hoping for, when Governor Cuomo in Syracuse Thursday announced the region can start to reopen the economy.
Phase One of that process will include manufacturing and construction, slight easing of restrictions on retailers for curbside pick-up, and other wholesale and supply businesses. Cuomo says the task falls to local governments to monitor potential increases in the coronavirus once more business is underway.
“You know how you increased the level of that activity. We’re monitoring the effect of that activity. You’re going to say, ‘It’s a reopening.’ People are going to say, ‘Halleluiah’ and run out of their houses. They’re going to want to get out; they’re going to want to do things. Phased reopening does not mean the problem has gone away.”
Businesses that want to reopen have to have a plan for worker and customer safety, which local governments will also monitor.
(List of businesses that can reopen & guidelines they have to follow HERE)
The region includes Onondaga, Cayuga, Madison, Cortland and Oswego Counties. Cuomo has continued to lobby for more assistance from Washington. He told lawmakers in a letter more help is needed for businesses, as long as it helps employees.
“Any corporation that gets money form the government, from the people, should hire back the same number of workers. If you want to lay off workers, don’t expect the taxpayer to subsidize you laying off workers.”
He’s also looking for a repeal of the tax law that got rid of the exemption on state and local taxes – called the SALT exemption.
“Ironically, the states most hurt by SALT are the states that have the most pain from the COVID virus. So repealing SALT is, in my opinion, the best thing you can do to help the states that are now battling the COVID virus.”
LESSONS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Cuomo adds there are opportunities here to heal together as Washington considers aid proposals.
“It is a moment in our modern history that we can get out of this partisan gridlock, hyper-political moment. Now is the time.”
There are also some lessons to be learned. Cuomo says New York can help with one of those lessons … the unconscionable lack of medical and protective equipment.
“Let us start manufacturing, here in this country, in this state, masks and gowns and drugs and the ventilators and tests we need. But we must never again as a nation have to scramble the way we had to scramble. We (New York) are now aggressively courting businesses, incentivizing businesses to manufacture medical equipment in this state.”
Whatever progress a phased reopening and reduced infections brings, Cuomo cautioned that the virus has beaten and surprised us at every turn. Facts about antibodies and immunity; children being unaffected; and how we get infected, have all changed. So, he warns, don’t underestimate the virus as society starts to open up again.
