Murphy Lifts ‘Stay-at-Home’ Order and Other Rules

By George N. Saliba, Managing Editor On Jun 9, 2020

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include direct links to Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive orders, as well as a new, late-breaking statement from the governor’s office regarding telework/work-from-home arrangements.

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New Jersey’s March 21 “stay-at-home” executive order is lifted – effective immediately – Gov. Phil Murphy said at today’s COVID-19 press conference.

The governor’s office later released a statement which reads, in part, “Paragraph 2 of Executive Order No. 107, which requires New Jersey residents to remain home with limited exceptions, is formally rescinded.  The other provisions of that Order, including the requirement that businesses or non-profits accommodate their workforce for telework or work-from-home arrangements, wherever practicable, are still in effect.”

Murphy also issued a new executive order that “authorizes all outdoor recreational and entertainment businesses that were previously closed to reopen, with the exceptions of amusement parks, water parks and arcades, which all involve large numbers of people coming into contact with high-touch surfaces.”

Most other retail-type businesses must still remain shuttered except for curbside pickup until June 15, at which time Murphy will allow them to reopen at 50% capacity and with other rules and regulations.

And in what Murphy described as paving the way for greater indoor activities including more religious worship, he said he will now allow overall building occupancies to be increased to either 25% of a structure’s occupancy limits or to 50 persons – whichever is the lower figure (occupants are directed to stay six feet apart from each other and to wear face coverings).

This same executive order also increases outdoor gathering limits from a maximum of 25 people to 100 people, effective immediately, with Murphy saying, “and there will now be an exception, explicitly allowing outdoor gatherings of more than 100 persons, for First Amendment protected outdoor activities, such as political protests of any persuasion or outdoor religious services.”

He said he anticipates “being able to raise the limit on non-protest and non-religious activities to 250 people on June 22, and to 500 people on July 3.”

He added, “This means that school districts planning for graduations should prepare for a 500-person limit to be in place by the time graduations can resume on July 6. However – as I noted many times before – should we see any troubling signs in the data indicating a spike in cases, or a backslide in our fight against COVID-19, either or both of these steps may not happen.”

The second executive order also authorizes swimming pools to reopen on June 22, with The New Jersey Department of Health issuing detailed guidance today for how people should conduct themselves at swimming pools, including when – and when not – to wear masks (not while in the pool), and requiring that swimmers sign log books creating a record that can be used for contact tracing.

A complete copy of Executive Order No. 152 (indoor and outdoor gatherings) may be found here.

A complete copy of Executive Order No. 153 (outdoor swimming pools / outdoor recreational and entertainment businesses) may be found here.

New Jersey Economic Development Authority

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) earlier today opened applications for an additional $45 million in small business grants that are made possible through federal CARES Act funding.

NJEDA CEO Tim Sullivan said, “We have said from the outset that this is not only first and foremost a public health crisis … but it is also an economic crisis, and both of those crises are being felt disproportionately by communities of color, and minority- and women-owned businesses, in particular.”

He added, “Of the funding we started taking applications for today, a third of that money – $15 million – was reserved for businesses located in Opportunity Zone Eligible Census tracks; these are high poverty, high unemployment, low-income census tracks, to make sure that we are putting an equity and justice lens on everything we are doing around economic recovery.”

As of 12:45 p.m. today, the NJEDA received 19,500 applications; Sullivan said the program can support about 16,000 businesses with the $45 million, although, in effect, not all of the 19,500 applications will be valid applications.

He said that businesses may visit cv.business.nj.gov to apply, and that the NJEDA will continue to take applications “for the next couple of days.”  The NJEDA expects to start sending money early next week, he said.

Sullivan also said the NJEDA board met this morning telephonically “and approved a new and expanded $10 million micro business financing tool; this is to support sole proprietorships and other microbusinesses.” The expanded program will provide financing up to $50,000 for micro businesses and nonprofits with ten or fewer employees and no greater than $1.5 million in annual revenues.

He added, “Something like 90% of African-American and Latino-owned businesses are sole proprietorships, and we wanted to make sure we developed a tool to support those businesses, in particular, which are hurting disproportionately right now.”

He said this $10 million program will be launched in the next few weeks.

To access more business news, visit NJB News Now.

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