NY Senate to overturn Cuomo’s food-with-drinks restaurant rule

People work in the Senate Chamber at the New York State Capitol

A view of the Senate Chamber at the New York State Capitol in Albany in March.Hans Pennink | AP Photo

By Edward McKinley | Times Union, Albany

Albany, N.Y. — The state Senate’s Democratic Majority Conference announced it will move Wednesday to suspend several executive orders that had been issued by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo during the coronavirus pandemic, including a rule requiring restaurants to serve food to any patrons ordering alcoholic beverages.

The Legislature had granted Cuomo sweeping powers to temporarily amend state law as the pandemic struck New York 13 months ago. He has used that authority to shut down and reopen the economy, implement restrictions and capacity limits on businesses, administer the vaccination roll out and handle all other related matters to COVID-19.

A statute passed in 1979 empowered the governor to “temporarily suspend any statute, local law, ordinance, or orders, rules or regulations, or parts thereof” for a period of 30 days. But as the coronavirus pandemic took hold last year, the Legislature gave Cuomo the ability to “issue any directive ... necessary to cope with the disaster.”

Those powers were partially rolled back last month with Cuomo facing controversies including his administration’s handling of nursing homes, allegations that state health officials prioritized testing for the governor’s family members in the early days of the pandemic, accusations that Cuomo engaged in systemic sexual harassment, and the cover-up of structural issues with the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. More than half of the members of the Legislature have called for Cuomo to resign — most citing the sexual harassment allegations.

Republican members of the Legislature have pressed aggressively on the restaurant restrictions, saying that the supposed repeal of Cuomo’s emergency powers was a political show and left him with all the same functional powers he had before.

The expected action Wednesday from the Senate marks the first action to overturn Cuomo’s executive orders since the beginning of the pandemic, although the Legislature has for the entire time retained the ability to overrule the governor with a majority vote. Three orders will be suspended: the food-with-drinks at restaurants, regulations and restrictions on the vaccine roll out, and an order that exempted voluntary government consultants from the state’s disclosure requirements for public officials.

That last exemption was enacted, in part, because Cuomo had brought on many former aides to serve in his administration on a volunteer basis, including many assigned to his coronavirus task force. But some officials expressed concern that those officials could have undisclosed interests with businesses or entities that may do business with the state, including for pandemic-related services.

“As more New Yorkers continue to get vaccinated, and our infection rates continue to decline, it is time to begin removing certain restrictions and regulations that are no longer necessary, so we can safely reopen and rebuild our state’s economy,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins wrote in a statement accompanying the announcement.

The Senate’s announcement said the conference will “continue to review existing directives that can be removed as session continues.”

Sen. John Mannion, a Syracuse Democrat, quickly followed the announcement with a statement of his own, saying: “I’ve been calling for an end to arbitrary restrictions like food with alcohol for months. It never made sense. The arbitrary curfew should be the next thing to go.”

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