A Minnesota business owner lashed out at the government’s mandated coronavirus stay-at-home order, saying that the measures will cost him his life savings and his business.
“I’m here because unless the governor lifts the stay-at-home order, in another 30 days, I’m out of business,” resort owner Bob Barton told Breitbart News during a “Liberate Minnesota” protest in St. Paul. “I lose my home because we have a three-month season in which we make our living, and [Walz is] already talking about truncating it by a month now. Me and hundreds of other resorts will go out of business this year.”
Barton added that the number of resorts has declined over the past few decades and that tourism is a crucial part of the businesses that he relies on to get by.
“In this state, 30 years ago, there were over 2,500 resorts. We’re down to a hair over 800,” he said. “I would think that we’re going to lose half of those this year, and northern Minnesota is all tourism-based. We’re all interrelated, whether it’s a resort or a bait store or a hardware store or a grocery store or a gas station, you name it — when one sector goes down, we all go down.”
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued a stay-at-home order in late March, calling for Minnesotans to “buckle it up” for several weeks.
Hundreds of people gathered outside of the governor’s home this week to protest the order, which extends until at least May 4.
“The crowd is now several hundred. Impossible to get an accurate count,” KMSP-TV/FOX 9 reporter Theo Keith tweeted. “The crowd has been mostly civil, though one woman was telling people, “Don’t get near me. I’ve got COVID!”
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*story by The Washington Examiner