Tague Joined by Assembly Minority in Calling on Speaker Heastie, Committee Chairs to Provide Justification for Restaurant Curfew
Assemblyman Chris Tague (R,C,I-Schoharie) is joining his Assembly Minority colleagues in calling on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and relevant committee leaders to provide them with copies of the required notices and justifications from the governor’s office regarding a modification to an executive order that mandates a 12 a.m. curfew on bars and restaurants, and why the curfew was simply pushed back an hour from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. instead of being eliminated entirely. Pursuant to Chapter 71 of the laws of 2021, the governor is now required to inform legislative leaders and relevant committee chairs of any extension, modification or alteration to existing executive orders related to the pandemic.
The mandated curfew has been in effect in some form since mid-November of last year and has placed financial strain on family-owned businesses and small restaurants, forcing many of them to close on a temporary or permanent basis. Tague has been a vocal critic of this curfew for months, especially as similar restrictions were lifted on casinos, theaters and gyms.
“After a farcical show of ‘taking away the governor’s powers,’ it has become clear the governor has as much power as ever to jeopardize the livelihoods of working people and small business owners,” said Tague. “This curfew is senseless and dangerous, and its continuation will lead to nothing but more family businesses being forced to close their doors, let their employees go, and let decades of work across generations go down the drain. Now more than ever we need those in the Majority to join us in fighting for our small and family-owned restaurants and businesses, and to stand up and speak out against these senseless mandates. In the absence of a competent and reasonable executive, it is up to us in the Legislature to stand up for the everyday people of this state and reject policies like this that cause senseless suffering in our communities.”