Assemblyman Introduces Legislation To Extend Business Curfew

LONG ISLAND, NY — After calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to extend the 10 p.m. curfew, a Long Island assemblyman has now introduced legislation to make it possible in time for the Super Bowl.

After calling for the governor to remove the curfew during the football season in order to help local businesses, Jarett Gandolfo (R,C,I-Sayville), announced on Tuesday that he drafted legislation to override the indoor dining shutdown.

"The arbitrary 10 p.m. indoor dining curfew is slowly killing locally-owned restaurants and the food service industry as a whole," Gandolfo said. "Our local restaurants have gone to great lengths to keep customers and staff safe, even the governor’s own data shows this. I see no reason why these establishments would be unable to maintain a safe environment beyond 10 p.m."

Under the new legislation proposed by Gandolfo, restaurants and bars will be allowed to remain open two hours later until 12 a.m. According to the contact tracing data, restaurants and bars have only accounted for just 1.4 percent of COVID-19 cases in New York.

"Extending the dining curfew prior to Super Bowl Sunday would be a lifeline for the struggling industry; failure to do so will only encourage people to attend less safe in-home gatherings," Gandolfo said. "I’m disappointed that the governor has disregarded the data and ignored the pleas from small business owners, making this legislation necessary."

Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo released the following statement in response to the call to extend curfew:

We understand bars and restaurants are hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we've been moving heaven and earth to help them weather this crisis — from securing $100 million from the private sector for low-interest loans, to launching a restaurant recovery grant fund, to cutting red tape so they can sell cocktails via delivery and immediately expand their outdoor dining footprints. The fact remains that the CDC and New York State data show indoor dining is a particularly high-risk activity, and reducing operating hours is a commonsense way to reduce the risk of spreading COVID.