New York’s state of emergency was set to expire today, however Hochul is extending it to mid-April.
Politico reported:
Gov. Kathy Hochul will extend the state of emergency for the pandemic another month, her office said on Wednesday. Doing so will let governments throughout the state continue to host remote meetings.
The Open Meetings Law requires most state and local government entities to host their meetings in person. That requirement was suspended by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the start of the pandemic, and lawmakers throughout New York moved their deliberations to online.
That suspension ended once Cuomo’s emergency powers lapsed last summer.
But as Covid variants began to afflict the state, lawmakers enacted a series of similar suspensions. The most recent of them was tied to the emergency that Hochul declared once Omicron started to spread in December. Once that emergency ended, in-person meetings would need to resume.
That state of emergency was due to end on March 16. But Hochul will extend it another month.