Tedisco: Keep Lemonade Stands Open

Senator Jim Tedisco (R,C,I,REF-Glenville) today visited Brendan Mulvaney, a 7-year-old Ballston Spa boy whose lemonade stand was shut down by a New York State Health Department inspector, and vowed to fight the state bureaucrats to keep all child-run residential lemonade stands open.

Today’s Daily Gazette revealed that on Friday, a state health inspector walked onto the Mulvaney family’s backyard “and asked if Brendan had a permit to sell the lemonade.”  The inspector then reportedly tried taking a picture of the boy and his sign selling lemonade.  Brendan was saving money for a family trip to Disney World.

“There’s nothing that says America more than apple pie and kids running lemonade stands. What has our state government come to? When I was a kid, state bureaucrats didn’t go around shutting down lemonade stands and threatening children and families with fines.  These kids are trying to give people sweet lemonade and learn some important business skills but the overzealous state bureaucrats in the administration just keep giving taxpayers lemons,” said Tedisco. 

“This is a microcosm of what’s wrong with New York State. No wonder New York State has lost one million people in the past decade and close to 200,000 people in the past year.  Too much time and taxpayer dollars are being spent trying to hunt down child entrepreneurs selling lemonade and not stopping rampant corruption in the highest levels of state government. And shortly, if this continues, we won’t be known as the ‘Empire State’ any longer, but we’ll become the ‘Empty State,’” said Tedisco.

Tedisco said he will be reaching out to the state Health Department to protest the closing of Brendan Mulvaney’s lemonade stand and is researching new legislation, if necessary, to ensure young children across the state can continue to operate lemonade stands under parental supervision without fear of being closed by “big brother” state inspectors.