AURORA | More directives from the state on a worsening economic crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic are on the way.
First, Gov. Jared Polis announced Friday restaurants can now offer alcoholic beverages with take-out meals. Typically that is forbidden, but the regulation has temporarily been rolled back to allow more business opportunities in the service industry.
Earlier this week Polis updated a public health order closing bars, restaurants, theaters, gyms and casinos to include nonessential personal services facilities, horse track and off-track betting facilities statewide.
On Friday, Polis also unveiled an emergency economic council to address the short and long term consequences of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“All will be impacted by the economic piece,” Polis said in a news conference on Friday. He tapped former Denver mayor Federico Peña to lead the council that will aim to bring a bevy of industries and experts together to limit the effects of the virus on Colorado’s economy as much as possible.
“I don’t want to be any way alarmist, but this is going to be difficult,” Peña, who spent the last two decades out of office in investing, said of the challenges the state faces. “The challenge we face is extraordinary.”
The council will start with seven members, he said and focus on Colorado workers and the business community for the short and longterm.
Polis said he initiated the council now because losing a month on the economic fallout of the virus would lead to “untold suffering.”
In addition to the council, Polis said he is encouraging banks and credit unions in Colorado to align their polices with the Federal Housing Finance Agency. This week agency director Mark Calabria ordered a 60 day suspension on evictions and foreclosures for enterprise-backed mortgages and announced earlier in the month those who hold those mortgages and are impacted by the virus may be able to have a mortgage payment suspended for up to one year.
Courts in the 17th and 18th Judicial Districts will not be holding eviction hearings at least through April 3 as part of suspended court processes throughout the state, according to Jon Sarché, Deputy Public Information Officer for the Colorado Judicial Department.
Polis is expected to sign an executive order rolling out more direction on the economic impact on Friday.
Polis also called on federal authorities and Congress to “think big” in increasing federal funding of Medicaid, cash payments to citizens, food assistance benefits, tax relief and child care. He said Colorado recently received personal protective equipment from the federal stockpile but not enough to meet projected needs. He praised Colorado firms that are moving ahead with manufacturing face masks and other equipment.
Once more supplies are in hand “in a matter of weeks,” hospitals will be able to resume elective procedures, he said. A state order Thursday postponed those procedures to allow hospitals to address the pandemic.