POUGHKEEPSIE — NYS Senator Peter Harckham, a Democrat, squared off against his Republican challenger, former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino at an event sponsored by the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning. Both men shared suggestions about reopening in the Hudson Valley and spoke to the urgency of the matter.
Both Astorino and Harckham told of their plans to the Dutchess County business community, including possible strategies, one of which is continuing the relaxed policies of the State Liquor Authority (SLA) within the state.
Astorino announced that he is open to legislating more lenient regulations at the state level, across the board, if he is elected in November and criticized the over-regulation he believes has been part of Cuomo’s recent executive policies.
“I have trust in the business owners who have put their sweat equity, their savings, their livelihoods into something,” said Astorino. “I do think bars and restaurants can self-govern to an extent.. if we’re going to thrive as a state, we’ve got to be better than we were before because the same bad habits and just doubling down on those are going to make it a nightmare to get back on our feet,” he said.
Senator Harckham submitted that rezoning businesses for outdoor dining and improving infrastructure have shown to be successful. He believes these strategies can promote business even during a time of social distancing.
“That’s what we want to do to create attractions to get people walking in our downtowns again,” said Harckham. “We want to get foot traffic back in our downtowns, in our hamlets, in our villages. We have to have appropriate infrastructure for things like restaurants and housing,” he said.
Harckham added that his main fear is opening indoor bars and restaurants too soon, as happened in southern states and seeing an uptick in COVID cases just as the state has seemed to get the virus under control.
Another idea from Astorino is to provide small businesses for liability protection, so they can feel safer about reopening without the fear of being immediately sued by someone if they were to get sick.
Both Harckham and Astorino agreed that reopening is paramount right now and that there needs to be a more decisive plan of action than is currently being provided to businesses trying to reopen.
