BUFFALO (WBEN) - Governor Cuomo is receiving a fair amount of backlash over comments made during a Wednesday press conference in which he said he's eager to get limited fans back into Bills Stadium, but he wants to visit before making a decision.
Several local officials, including State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, are calling this out as an inconsistency with previous reopening policies, suggesting Cuomo simply wants to make a show of it.
"Really, we're operating off what makes him comfortable, not on what the science says or what the data says, or even consistency with other executive orders," said Ortt. "It really comes down to that he wants everybody to know that it's his decision, and he's the person making the call."
Just hours after Cuomo's comments, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz was asked about the status of the October 15 game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Poloncarz said he would welcome Cuomo for a visit, but for fans to be allowed at the Thursday night game, a state decision would have to come by the end of the week.
Orchard Park Town Supervisor Patrick Keem said "it's a shame" that the Bills are finally good but Bills Mafia isn't allowed to see them in person at the stadium, and he's not sure why Cuomo visiting Bills Stadium would be a requirement before opening the gates to limited fans.
"Personally, I think it's a little bit overkill that he has to visit - it could be political motivation - who knows?" said Keem.
State Assemblyman Angelo Morinello echoed Keem's sentiments, confused by the reasoning.
"There's an announcement that there may be Bills fans allowed in but the governor has to look at the stadium - he's looked at that stadium thousands of times," said Morinello. "It's on paper - they could look at the flow patterns, so I'm not sure the purpose behind it."
Ortt argues that Cuomo's handling of this issue is actually a microcosm of a larger problem.
"This is totally inconsistent with how every other decision, or at least what we've been told, every other decision has been made," he said. "You start to wonder how these decisions are being made - clearly he's got to come here himself - I don't know if he's got to make a spectacle of it, but the bigger thing, I think, is that it just highlights that at some point we need to get back to a balance of government where the governor doesn't have these super majority powers, emergency powers, where he's able just to make these decisions all by himself and the legislature has no input on these things."
