Phase two of the economic reopening for parts of upstate New York is not moving forward today, angering leaders who had hoped to enter the next stage of the business recovery. 

Regional officials overseeing the reopening were told by Governor Andrew Cuomo's office Thursday evening the second phase was being put on hold. 


What You Need To Know

  • Phase 2 was initially to begin today

  • But that's been delayed by state officials

  • Gov. Cuomo says he wants to leave that up to "experts" but the details are vague.

  • Some details on when phase 2 begins remain murky.

"Small businesses set to reopen in Phase Two have spent endless hours in recent weeks readying to safely reopen," state Senator Patty Ritchie wrote in a statement. "Up until tonight, they believed they’d be able to do so on Friday." 

Montgomery County Executive Matt Ossenfort was also frustrated -- and surprised by the delay. 

"I am shocked and frustrated with this news," he wrote in a Facebook post. "Leaders from across the Mohawk Valley have been working tirelessly to prepare and provide guidance to their communities. Many Montgomery County residents have spent time and resources preparing to reopen tomorrow and many of you have been looking forward to experiencing the simple things such as a haircut."

Five upstate regions started Phase 1 on May 15, meeting all 7 benchmarks Cuomo laid out to make sure regions are testing, tracing and tracking coronavirus cases.

Regional control boards in charge of making sure coronavirus numbers do not go up and even many businesses were under the assumption until Thursday evening, that they would be allowed to move on to Phase 2. 

It wasn't until Cuomo in a WAMC interview on Thursday did he hint that the next step to Phase 2 would be left up to data experts and not an exact two week progression between phases. 

"The reopening of the first five regions ends tomorrow when the reopening of phase 1 ends," Cuomo said. "We'll give the experts all the data. It's posted on the web, but let them analyze it and if they say we move forward, we move forward."

Regional officials were not formally told of the decision until hours after the evening during an evening conference call.

"I can assure you that not only do I not care what some unnamed and probably non existent ‘international group’ has to say about our data, I don’t even care what Cuomo has to say at this point. This is some seriously disturbing behavior being exhibited by this Governor," Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin wrote on Twitter.

"The real experts we should be listening to are right here in our communities, the people who know best how this shutdown has impacted the places we live," Assemblyman Chris Tague also said in a statement. "Small businesses in our state aren’t just excited to reopen, they have to, and the reality of the matter is that the lack of revenue coming in is going to prevent them from ever doing so again. "

Late Thursday evening, the governor's office did release new, more in depth guidance on what Phase 2 will eventually look like. 

  • All office based jobs will now be able to return 
  • Limited in-store shopping capped at 50% occupancy
  • Limited hair salon and barbershop services
  • Real estate services
  • Employers will be required to provide employees with PPE

Non-essential businesses and schools first closed in March in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Since then, millions of unemployment benefit applications have been filed and tax revenue has vanished, creating an economic crisis. 

A Siena College poll this week found most New Yorkers would prefer a graudal reopening of the economy that took care to not further spread the virus, rather than a quick reopenign to bring jobs back.