The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance made the following statement today in response to Massachusetts being the last state in all of New England to allow restaurants to offer indoor dining.

Yesterday, NH joined RI, VT, and ME in allowing their restaurants to seat indoor dining. CT is expected to allow indoor dining starting tomorrow.

“Once again, Governor Baker’s orders are not keeping pace with our neighbors. Countless Massachusetts businesses are struggling with the slow phased re-opening. Our state’s restaurants are being ‘phased out’ while they watch every other state in New England open up but not ours,” stated Paul D. Craney, spokesperson for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

Massachusetts is repeating many of its previous mistakes. Massachusetts was the last state in the country to allow for retailers to perform curbside pickup and for golf, an inherently socially-distant sport, to be reopened.

“While much of the country received good news with last week’s unemployment numbers, Massachusetts continued to see our unemployment numbers grow and that is largely due to poor decisions. The Governor's office simply doesn't have the capacity to review the hundreds of thousands of unique situations that compromise our economy. The result is unnecessary closures and a snail's pace reopening,” concluded Craney.