McMahon says Central New York counties will collaborate on economic restart plan

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon says he’ll be working with county leaders from across Central New York to formulate a plan for a regional economic restart following the COVID-19 restrictions.

But, as of now, McMahon doesn’t have a timeline for that restart, describing it as a “phased-in approach.” He addressed the issue during Friday’s coronavirus briefing at the Oncenter and again at Monday’s briefing.

“I think the governor has referenced a few times that New York State’s diverse. We’ve been impacted differently by this virus and we need to look at this potentially by regions. We agree with the governor,” said McMahon. “We believe that Central New York, as a region, should be looked at on its own merits based off of health data.”

McMahon also noted that it’s his understanding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will decide if he’s going to allow regional restarts.

Onondaga County’s leader will work on this regional plan with his counterparts in Oneida, Herkimer, Cayuga, Oswego, Madison, and Cortland counties. The group will also include city leaders in Syracuse, Utica, Oswego, Auburn, and Fulton.

“What we’re talking about is coordinating a restart strategy and when we restart certain things and we roll them out based off of data,” said McMahon.

The effort will require coordination with health commissioners, hospitals, emergency management departments, economic development officials, and potential coordination with schools.

“We’re going to work on a plan. We’re going to present the plan to the state. And then when do you implement that plan? We implement that plan when the data merits that our public-health department agrees that they have the ability to deal with this threat in real time. We’re not there now. We don’t have our plan done, but we do agree that Central New York can be looked as a region in this process,” said McMahon.