Coronavirus Latest: Pennsylvania's Business Shutdown Waiver Program Audited Amid Complaints It Was Managed Unfairly
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Gov. Tom Wolf's business shutdown waiver program is being audited amid complaints it was managed unfairly, Pennsylvania's chief fiscal watchdog announced Thursday. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said he is investigating how the Department of Community and Economic Development ran the waiver program, under which tens of thousands of businesses applied to remain open during the pandemic.
In March, Wolf, a Democrat, closed businesses deemed "non-life-sustaining" to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, which has sickened more than 45,000 Pennsylvania residents and killed nearly 2,300. Wolf said he welcomed a review by the auditor general's office, headed by DePasquale, a fellow Democrat who is running for Congress this year.
"During this pandemic, obviously our economy has taken a huge hit. The question we need to find out is, could more businesses have been opened?" DePasquale said in a video news conference. "And was this done in a fair process?"
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Separately, a committee in the Republican-controlled state Senate voted Thursday along party lines to use a rarely used subpoena process to demand information related to the waivers granted by Wolf's administration.
The pandemic and the state's efforts to contain the virus have caused economic devastation, throwing nearly 1.7 million Pennsylvania residents out of work since mid-March.
Many business owners have complained about a process they contend has been slow and arbitrary.
Butler County dog groomer Pamela Zydel, whose business, 5th Avenue Fido, has been closed since March 19 and was denied a waiver because pet grooming is considered a nonessential business, questioned why a big-box retailer like Walmart is permitted to serve hundreds of customers at a time but she can't groom a single dog.
Zydel, whose county has only been lightly impacted by the virus, said she plowed her life savings into purchasing the business in October, "and now I'm virtually broke." She said she could have operated safely.
"I don't think it was thought through very carefully, and I don't think they thought about the ramifications of their decisions," she said.
Wolf defended the waiver program, saying Thursday that Pennsylvania was possibly the only state to allow business owners to appeal their designation as either essential or nonessential as governors across the country ordered shutdowns.
"We tried to do right thing," he said. "Were some mistakes made? Maybe. And if they were, then the folks in Pennsylvania have every right to know about that. I think the auditor general is in a really good position to determine whether that, in fact, happened."
Wolf's office, however, called the Senate's subpoenas a "counterproductive step." It said it is committed to disclosing information about the process, but did not say whether it would comply by the Senate's May 8 deadline.
More than 42,000 businesses applied for exemptions by the April 3 application deadline. Over 6,000 had been approved through Wednesday, while more than 13,000 applications were denied. Thousands more businesses applied for waivers that didn't need them to stay open, according to state officials.
Wolf recently announced he is loosening some business restrictions and plans to begin easing stay-at-home orders on May 8 in lightly impacted regions of the state.
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