Pa. restaurant owners deflated after bill to ease restrictions fails

Pennsylvania restaurant owners have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and were hoping to see restrictions relaxed on their businesses.

An effort in the General Assembly failed again Tuesday, albeit just barely. The state House of Representatives fell short in a bid to override Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto of a bill that would have eased rules on restaurants. The effort needed two-thirds of the House and fell short by two votes.

John Longstreet, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, said the defeat of the bill (HB 2513) was a blow for the industry.

“The failure to pass HB 2513 is devastating to the long-term survival of the restaurant, private event, and lodging industries,” Longstreet said in a statement. “On behalf of the 30,000 businesses and 700,000 hospitality employees across the Commonwealth, the PRLA will not relent in speaking up for the struggling restaurant, private event and lodging industries.”

Wolf vetoed the bill Friday. He argued the measure would threaten public safety and said it would potentially increase the likelihood of more outbreaks of the coronavirus.

The measure would have set minimum seating capacity for restaurants and taverns at a minimum of 50%, with the potential to go beyond that if they met state and federal standards. The bill would have also allowed establishments to permit guests to sit at bars, provided they socially distance, and would eliminate the requirement that a meal must be purchased to buy an alcoholic beverage.

The restaurant association said it plans to continue to press lawmakers and the administration to support such measures.

Chris Webb, director of operations for PJW Restaurant Group, which includes the PJ Whelihan’s Pub &. Restaurant chain, was hoping the legislation would succeed. PJ Whelihan’s, which operates restaurants in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is opening a restaurant at 3882 Union Deposit Road in Susquehanna Township on Nov. 3.

Webb said there’s no reason they can’t be permitted to seat diners around their 40-seat bars with social distancing.

“You’re going to find that vote yesterday is going to sink a lot of restaurants, especially when they say only 3% of the people that actually got COVID were in a restaurant. Restaurants are not creating COVID," Webb said.

Matt Flinchbaugh, leader of the Central PA Restaurant Coalition leader and owner of Flinchy’s and Home Slice at Walden, faulted Democratic lawmakers who wouldn’t back the effort to overturn the governor’s veto.

“At a time when we need our elected officials to step up and support us, most House Democratic lawmakers chose not to overturn Governor Tom Wolf’s veto that is severely crippling our restaurants, bars and taverns, and is significantly hurting our daily lives. Our hardworking employees and family businesses have suffered enough,” Flinchbaugh said in a statement.

House Republicans, along with 22 House Democrats, voted in support of overturning Wolf’s veto. If the House had mustered two more votes, the measure would have gone to the Senate for an attempt at an override. The last time the General Assembly succeeded in overriding a governor’s veto was in November 2010.

Republican lawmakers such as state Rep. Kurt Masser, R-Northumberland County, argued the measure was needed to prevent more restaurants from closing. “Every day we choose not to act more are going to go out of business,” Masser said.

Conversely, House Minority Leader Frank Dermody argued it isn’t the time to relax restrictions with cases rising steadily and expressed astonishment at the timing of the debate. The state has reported more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases for 15 consecutive days, he noted.

“You are not just putting the patrons at risk, the workers, the communities, you are putting them right in harm’s way," Dermody argued.

The percentage of positive tests has been rising in recent weeks, according to the state Department of Health. Statewide, more than 184,000 people have contracted the coronavirus and more than 8,500 deaths in Pennsylvania have been tied to COVID-19.

In July, Wolf tightened restrictions on eating establishments and rolled back indoor seating limits to 25%.

Last month, he offered some relief by raising indoor seating to 50% but restaurant owners expressed disappointment over a new 11 p.m. cutoff for booze sales. Restaurants wishing to go to 50% of indoor seating capacity also must undergo a self-certification process with the state.

“We only asked that we be allowed to open to 50% capacity with COVID safety measures in place, while removing some of the onerous guidelines impacting our businesses and restricting customers' choices,” he said.

People in red states are starting to recover.

Those in Democrat states are not "allowed" to open their businesses.

The Democrat politicians keep putting in further restrictions on the people, trying to prolong everyone's misery, and increase their economic disaster.

Another example: Local news had a report that said Disneyland California's people are angry because they are not "allowed" to open, but other places are "allowed" to- i.e. Disney Fl. is opening.

It was a sad story to hear, but, this is what happens when people vote for the entirely corrupt, Chyna-owned, anti-American, Democrat party.

The Democrat party needs people to be broke, struggling, and dependent on government so their politicians can engage in corruption, without having to worry about "the peasants" voting them out of power. This is why the Democrats NEVER IMPROVE ANYTHING FOR ANYONE, ANYWHERE.

Every place where Democrats have total control is a disaster area.

San Francisco comes to mind. Believe it or not it used to be considered a beautiful city.

Now the residents have to step through human poop, and discarded needles, to go to work ,(if they can actually find any work, in the third world wasteland formerly known as San Francisco).

Unfortunately, Americans residing in blue states have been subjected to outrage after outrage, at the hands of the Democrats they foolishly voted for, to run their states/cities, and have power over them.

They, (blue state residents), have been locked in their homes, and ordered to destroy their own businesses, by keeping them closed.

They have also lost their elderly relatives, because Democrats FORCED CCP virus positive patients, into nursing homes, (Remember the video of young person who had CCP sickness, BEATING THE HELL out of elderly man, who was his roommate at a facility😡), while also denying doctors the ability to prescribe HCL (which might have saved some-Were they deliberately "trying" to increase the body count, to scare citizens into going along with their plot to destroy the economy, and "get Trump"?)

And what about the rioting and looting that occured in most Democrat run areas- Was that more frightening the people, so they will vote democrat to make it stop? (Never mind that democrats encouraged the mayhem in the first, place-along with their accomplices in the Enemy-Of-The-People main stream media.)

Democrats "care" about the people in their areas so much, they let them be attacked by thugs, let their businesses be burned to the ground, and ordered police TO DO NOTHING while this was happening. And then they defunded police!

LET THAT SINK IN.

The Democrat party is a totally corrupt criminal enterprise.

They do not give 2 💩💩's about anyone.

WAKE UP AMERICA!

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