In North Carolina debate surfaces about what is and isn't an essential businesses. | Photo Courtesy of Pixabay
In North Carolina debate surfaces about what is and isn't an essential businesses. | Photo Courtesy of Pixabay
Economists and advocacy groups are warning that varying definitions of what is considered an essential business among local counties and municipalities will likely lead to economic problems, as well as public health issues.
“Allowing localities to define essential businesses is a bad idea for a couple of reasons,” Winston-Salem State University Economics Professor Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi told Winston-Salem Journal for its April 5 report. “It pits communities against communities and contributes to the spread of disease. If I cannot buy a car in Greensboro but can drive over to Winston-Salem to do so, I might be tempted to drive there. Thus, I could be spreading the virus from community to community, thus essentially defying the more restrictive stay-at-home order.”
Gov. Roy Cooper issued a stay-at-home order for the state of North Carolina on March 27. Under the order, essential businesses can operate as long as they implement social-distancing measures. Local governments also have the authority to enact stricter orders as they see fit. These local regulations would supersede the statewide order. North Carolina Retail Merchants Association President Andy Ellen said this gives some communities an unfair advantage since those governments are not all following the same social-distancing restrictions, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
While grocery stores, banks and gas stations qualify as essential businesses, a number of businesses are fighting to obtain approval for the designation from the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
“Every legal business is essential to its owner and employees, to the extent that they derive their livelihoods from that business,” Mitch Kokai, senior policy analyst with the John Locke Foundation, told the Journal. “Each of these businesses contributes in some way to the private-sector economy, which drives the economic growth that funds all of the government programs that are attracting so much attention during the pandemic.”
According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, there are 7,220 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 242 deaths as of April 22.
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