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Small Businesses Need To Open Soon Or They May Be Just A Memory

It’s been about 60 days since the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island held a news conference to say they would form guidelines to govern the states’ respective reopenings.

The plan, according to the governors, was to create a common framework even if the states opened on different timelines.

“Sharing information, learning from each other, pooling resources is only smart,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on April 13. “We have to be smart. You need the best public health plan and you need the best economic reactivation plan. It’s not either or, it has to be both. No one is willing to sacrifice one at the expense of the other and you can’t have one at the expense of the other. But how you do it, that’s the art form.”

After speaking to Erica Dix, co-owner of Anytime Fitness in West Ellicott and Amherst, the governor has created some pretty ugly art. Had the April 13 news conference been anything but a dog-and-pony show then states with border areas would have opened similar businesses at the same time rather than creating a situation in which a New York business is idle while similar businesses 15 minutes away are open.

As has been the case with many of Cuomo’s pronouncements since he assumed emergency power back in March, his smooth talk and calm demeanor belie a frenzied batch of policy making that ends up making little sense for the citizens left to deal with conflicting orders or orders that are made in a New York-centric vacuum.

Dix is ready to open. She has a plan ready. Her competitors in Pennsylvania are open. All Dix needs to open is the OK from the state to which she pays taxes each year.

And she will wait until the state is gosh-darned good and ready to open gyms — even though the same businesses in Warren are opening with no ill effect. The fact that Jamestown gyms are closed while Warren’s are open is just further proof that the April 13 made-for-press announcement was all sizzle, while New York’s business owners are left eating grizzle instead of steak.

When one wonders why Republicans in New York want to begin limiting Cuomo’s emergency powers, remember Erica Dix and those like her. If they don’t open soon, all our small business owners will be is a memory.

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