Nungesser Lays out Ideas for Reopening Restaurants

Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser says the state is working on a set of guidelines to potentially get restaurants and other service industry businesses open in May.

Nungesser says if it is safe to lift the stay at home order in May, restaurants could come back under strict guidelines.

“You may have to take the temperature of everybody working at a restaurant when they come to work every day, and they may have to wear gloves and a mask,” says Nungesser.

But Nungesser warns that even if we do reopen next month an estimated 5.9 million tourism-related jobs will have already been lost nationwide.

“So it is going to be an impact that we are going to feel for a long time and as quickly as we can get things back somewhat open we need to work towards that,” says Nungesser.

And Nungesser adds that even if we start reopening service industry businesses, it’s unlikely we will see many out of state people coming to visit them for a while.

“Visitors left behind 18.8 billion dollars, and that is over $1,000 per family in taxes that you and I did not have to pay. That has pretty much gone away,” says Nungesser.

Nungesser says polls show once the shelter in place order is lifted people are most likely to do “staycations” in their local area than to travel.

(Story written by Matt Doyle/Louisiana Radio Network)