Amid the rash of business closings in response to the COVID-19 virus spreading throughout the region, governments at the local, state and federal level must make sure a health crisis doesn’t become an economic crisis, one policy expert said.
“They have to make sure they’re not arrested by a health crisis so that it becomes an economic crisis,” said John Hudak, a senior fellow of governance studies, and deputy director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution.
Gov. Ned Lamont this morning announced bars and restaurants in the state must halt dining-in services after 8 p.m. Monday. The Connecticut Restaurant Association counted more than 154,000 workers in the industry as of 2017, and most of those people — who the CRA said make up about 9% of the state workforce — are now out of a job.
Movie theaters and gyms must also close.
Answering a question inquiring about a possible aid package, and worries of civil unrest amid a situation in which hundreds of thousands of people could be without paychecks for weeks, Lamont spokesman Max Reiss said the administration is looking at the situation, but had no specifics.
“The administration is currently developing measures to assist our business community, and we’re hoping to have an announcement soon,” he said.
The liberal Connecticut Working Families Party has been in contact with Lamont’s administration, and has been pushing for an expanded paid sick leave program, said Roger Senserrich, the organization’s communications director. Current rules only apply to companies with more than 50 employees, and allow for just five sick days.
The state should also relax unemployment insurance so that people affected by closings are able to buy food and pay bills, he said.
“These will be the first immediate things that can be done to address these issues faster,” Senserrich said. “This is potentially a big big big crisis … and it’s going to have a huge impact on people working in retail, working in restaurants and working in casinos.”
The fallout from so many workers being unable to pay their bills has Faraz Rehman, vice president of information services at East Hartford-based Associated Security Corp., thinking about possible safety issues for clients. His company’s clients include some retailers and private health care facilities he fears could have security issues if shortages of supplies and money come to a head, and people panic.
“It’s unpredictable,” Rehman said, noting he saw over the weekend people aggressively grabbing from the shelves at grocery and big box stores like Walmart. “I’m praying, like everyone else, that this all blows over.”
But the possibility of the situation rising to the level of civil unrest like looting that occurred after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans seems pretty low for the current crisis, Hudak said.
“Looting happens when a fairly significant portion of a society is affected in a way that it’s not expected… without a safety net,” Hudak said, noting he’d expect government-led aid efforts to materialize. “That happens when a government tends to be overwhelmed by one situation that they’re not able to deal with another.”
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