Monroe County Executive Adam Bello is calling for a go-slow approach in terms of reopening the county after the coronavirus pandemic eases.
Bello says that social distancing is working, helping the county keep the number of new COVID-19 cases from rising too rapidly. But he says there are still new cases every day, and with that, more fatalities as well.
While Bello, like other officials, also has to have an eye on restarting the economy, he also doesn’t want to do something that will lead to a spike in coronavirus cases.
“Look for a phased-in approach over time, but the other thing is, it’s not 100-percent clear when that will happen yet because we still are on that linear model , not on an exponential curve, so there’s still going to be some time here and we just need folks to continue doing what they’re doing in terms of social distancing,” Bello says.
Monroe and other counties are also grappling with impacts on their budgets, since the pandemic has deeply cut into sales tax and tourism related revenues.
Bello notes that a recent report from the New York State Association of Counties indicated the potential of a $20 million shortfall in sales tax revenue.
“It all depends I think on how we come out of this and what happens next, and that’s a question to be fair and honest about, is, we don’t know. We don’t know how long this will go and we don’t know what it will look like once the economy really starts humming again, whether or not some of that gets made up, or if that’s a whole that we’re looking at,” Bello says.
Bello also says the county continues to look at ways of helping small business, including adding funds to a program that provides zero interest loans to those businesses for things like utilities, payroll and equipment.
Bello announced on Friday that county economic development agencies have $1 million to use for those loans, money that comes out of fees collected by those agencies. He also says that the county will get another $1 million to help businesses from a federal Community Development Block Grant.
Bello says that the county's industrial development agency, COMIDA, on Friday approved expanded sales and use tax exemptions for businesses installing equipment to fight the coronavirus, as well as for companies involved in producing personal protection and related equipment.
Bello says the county also has been working with the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce and Greater Rochester Enterprise to connect people looking for work with available jobs.
The county is also trying to help small businesses navigate all of the various programs that may be available to them.
