Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf warned counties and businesses in the state that he will cut funds and licenses if they reopen before he gives them permission to.
Wolf made the comments on Monday after county officials, including Dauphin County Commissioner Mike Pries, said that they planned to go ahead with the next phase of the reopening process without an order from Wolf, according to Post Gazette. A number of lawmakers, district attorneys, and law enforcement also planned to deny the governor’s stay-at-home orders. Some state officials have also eased up on restrictions and allowed some businesses to reopen, provided that they follow safety precautions.
Wolf called the rush to move to the next phase of reopening a “cowardly act” and said that these actions will have consequences.
“To those politicians who decided to cave in to this coronavirus, they need to understand the consequences of their cowardly act,” Wolf said, reported the Post-Gazette.
“We Pennsylvanians have sacrificed in ways we could never have imagined, we’ve separated ourselves from our families, we have closed our schools. These heroic acts deserve to be met, not by surrendering, but by staying the course, and that’s what I intend to do,” Wolf said, according to Penn Live Patriot-News.
However, he said that those who refuse to adhere to the state’s stay-at-home order and reopen without the approval of the state could be denied the funding that has been put aside for local governments amid the pandemic.
“The funding we have put aside to help with fighting this crisis will go to the folks who are doing their part, and that includes our CARES Act funding, which will be used to support counties that are following the orders to prevent the spread in the medical communities who are treating patients,” Wolf, a Democrat, said.
“Other discretionary funding won’t go to counties that put us all at risk by operating illegally. To the politicians urging businesses to risk their lives, and risk of the lives of their customers or their employees by opening prematurely, they need to understand that they are engaging in behavior that is both selfish and unsafe,” he said.
Wolf, however, did not specify how the funding would be cut.
“You business owners, these politicians put you at risk of losing your health department’s certificate, they put you business owners at risk of losing your liquor license, they put you business owners at risk of losing your certificate of occupancy. All these depend upon you’re doing everything you can to keep your patrons safe, and by opening before the evidence suggests you should, you’re taking undue risks with the safety of your customers,” said Wolf.
“Businesses that do follow the whims of local politicians and ignore the law and the welfare of their customers who probably find themselves uninsured, because insurance does not cover things that happen to businesses breaking the law. And, let me be clear: Employees that fear for their safety because a business has opened illegally, they don’t have to go to work. Instead, they can stay at home, stay safe, and collect their unemployment benefits. Finally, the politicians who are encouraging the people they were elected to lead to quit the fight, are acting in a most cowardly way. This is not the time to give up. This is not the time to surrender. This is the time to rededicate ourselves to the task of beating this virus,” he said.
