This is the third in a series of Law in the Marketplace columns with practical tips on using federal and New Hampshire laws and orders to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Monitor readers, and particularly readers who are New Hampshire business owners or employees, should have a practical understanding of the benefits available to them under the two main federal coronavirus laws—namely, the Families First Act and the CARES Act.
However, they should also have a practical awareness of Gov. Chris Sununu’s executive and emergency orders concerning the coronavirus pandemic. I suggest that they should know the following five main points about these orders:
1. On March 13, because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on our state, Sununu published a declaration of emergency, and, through April 10, he has published a total of 30 emergency orders under that declaration. Until the pandemic subsides, he will undoubtedly publish more such orders, both to extend existing orders and for other purposes. His declaration of emergency and all of his emergency orders are listed under the following link: https://www.governor.nh.gov/news-media/emergency-orders/. The list provides excellent summaries of the orders. If readers click on this link, they will be able to rapidly identify emergency orders specifically relevant to them, their businesses and their families, and they can readily download these orders.
2. The most important orders are those requiring New Hampshire residents, whether directly under emergency orders or by implication under the above declaration of emergency, to comply with the social-distancing six-foot rule, not to hold meetings of more than 10 individuals, and, subject to certain exceptions, to stay in their homes in order to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection.
3. However, for business owners, the most important order is Exhibit A to Emergency Order No. 17. This order lists 17 specific types of businesses that provide “essential” services and support to protect New Hampshire and its citizens from COVID-19. These essential businesses may keep their offices open, and their employees who are necessary to complete critical and essential functions may work from these offices.
4. Business owners and their employees whose businesses are not included in this list must close their facilities to the public and work remotely. “Non-essential” retailers who are able to transition to curbside pickup or delivery are permitted to have staff on site to support e-commerce, provided that they observe social distancing protocols. Essential businesses include, for example, the various types of businesses producing and selling food, health care, the production and sale of energy, certain types of businesses providing businesses, public and private transportation businesses, public and private postal and shipping businesses, certain types of manufacturing businesses, and certain types of financial businesses (such as banks).
5. However, business owners should read Emergency Order No. 17 with great care. If they do so, they may discover that although that order appears to identify their own business as essential, a careful reading may indicate otherwise; or a careful reading may indicate that their business is an essential business even though one might not initially assume it to be such.
As business owners may be aware, there are numerous bills currently pending before our Legislature that may provide important benefits to New Hampshire businesses and whose enactment may help our state fight the coronavirus pandemic. Because of the above executive orders and in order to protect legislators from COVID-19 risks, the Legislature as a whole is not presently meeting, much less voting, and presumably will not do so until we reduce those risks.
However, it is possible that with hard work, a website can be created that will make legislative meetings and votes possible even during the pandemic. To help New Hampshire businesses and the citizens of our state in a time of great turmoil, I hope the governor will use his constitutional and statutory powers to explore this possibility and, if possible, to implement it.
John Cunningham is a Concord tax and business lawyer. He has published “Limited Liability Company Operating Agreements” and “Maximizing Pass-Through Deductions under Internal Revenue Code Section 199A”. Both are the leading books in their fields. If you have business or tax questions you’d like addressed in this monthly column, call him at 856-7172 or email lawjmc@comcast.net.