Ducey Takes Baby Steps Toward Reopening Economy, Politicos React

Dr. Cara Christ, director of Arizona Health Services, and Governor Doug Ducey explain the newest executive order.

PHOENIX — On Monday, Gov. Doug Ducey announced new plans to further open Arizona’s economy following a weekend of protest and criticism. Ducey’s decision to allow the opening of barbershops and salons won limited praise while sparking outrage among politicos and those business owners still denied the opportunity to operate.

The governor’s latest executive order allows cosmetologists and barber shops to resume appointment-based services Friday, May 8 and restaurants and coffee shops to resume dine-in services with physical distancing measures on Monday, May 11. The operators must establish and implement safety protocols including enacting physical distancing policies, limiting the number of diners and following protocols as directed by the CDC, the United States Department of Labor Division of Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Ducey’s announcement was followed by tweets from Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita and Rep. Kelly Townsend that they would push forward with concurrent resolutions to demand an end to the governor’s stay-at-home executive order.

Townsend explained her concerns in a Facebook post. “Although I am grateful that the governor has moved up the date for dine in services to May 11, I am very worried that many of my constituents will be permanently out of business before that time. They communicated that to us when we had our rally for restaurants,” said Townsend referring to the weekend protests.

“At the end of the day, we are treating differently our corporations and businesses depending on their size,” continued Townsend. “That is a violation of their Constitutional rights. Case law has eroded those rights and I hope that lawmakers can add more protections to prevent this type of usurpation by a governor in the future. I am still very disappointed and will continue to press for a concurrent resolution to put an end to this.”

According to multiple sources, lawsuits against the governor are in the works for what has been described as his arbitrary and capricious actions during the COVID-19 healthcare crisis.

It is widely believed that Ducey has delayed reopening the state in order to hang onto federal funding ties to his declaration of an emergency in March. Bolstering that belief was an email leaked to the Arizona Daily Independent from Senate President Karen Fann. In that email, Fann warned lawmakers that the passage of a resolution to end the executive order would cost the state millions in federal dollars.

On Apr 30, 2020, at 6:57 AM, Karen Fann <KFann@azleg.gov<mailto:KFann@azleg.gov>> wrote:

Before everyone weighs in on this email, I would like to relay some information we found out yesterday from legal counsel. If this resolution passes, the Governor’s emergency declaration will end. That means Arizona will get to keep the Covid money we have received to date but will NOT be entitled to all the millions of FEMA or DEMA funds. In addition, all of the emergency declarations the governor has passed over the past few weeks will end immediately…. these include things like state income tax deferral to July 15th; protections for our constituents from evictions, etc., etc……etc.

Shortly after Ducey’s Monday announcement, Senator Martha McSally announced that she had requested that the U.S. Department of the Treasury issue updated guidance to allow state and local governments greater discretion with relief dollars allocated in the CARES Act, specifically to fund public safety services including law enforcement and other first responders.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, McSally wrote that the “narrow scope of Treasury’s current guidelines was not allowing state and local governments to receive the full benefit of CARES Act funding.”

Although the governor, who has the lowest approval rating among governors for their response to the COVID-19 pandemic,, claimed to be making data-driven decisions, critics say the only data he is following is that related to funding as the data related to COVID-19 shows a steady decline of the relatively small positive case count in Arizona.

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