I demand Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson vote no on Assembly Bill 2681. The bill is well-intentioned but would create catastrophe for small businesses already struggling to stay open. 

This bill creates regulations that small businesses simply won’t be able to keep up with. They will be forced to draft and post plans to maintain a germ-free environment. This means all businesses, including those which operate outside, will be forced to keep their environments germ-free - an impossible task! Germs are everywhere - that’s how germs work! The bill doesn’t even mention COVID-19; it seeks to eliminate ALL airborne infectious diseases. While businesses should and do maintain sanitary environments, it is impossible for any environment besides sterilized laboratories to be 100% disease free, especially workplaces which are outside or are not in an office setting, such as a farm. 

The bill also fails to provide a period for businesses to comply with the new regulations. This means that businesses can be sued by unscrupulous lawyers for the most trivial violations before they even know what the new regulations are! An employee doesn’t even have to file a complaint beforehand. This will bankrupt businesses that are desperately trying to stay afloat and push others to move to more business-friendly states. 

Passing this bill would be another abdication of responsibility by the legislators. The bill transfers power to create policies regulating work environments from the Legislature to the Executive Branch, headed by corrupt King Cuomo. It is the Legislature’s job to write laws, including laws about sanitary work environments. Lawmakers get paid six-figure salaries; they should earn them by taking on the challenge of ensuring clean working conditions, not handing that power to Cuomo. Have they learned nothing from the nursing home fiasco? 

Especially shameful is Senator James Skoufis’s vote in favor of this bill. Why vote to give Cuomo more power after calling for his resignation? Whose side are you on, Senator: the people or King Cuomo? 

I urge Assemblyman Jacobson to exercise greater wisdom than Senator Skoufis and vote no on this bill.