That enforcement power is primarily backed up by two state statutes: a portion of the Administrative Code of 1929, and part of the 1955 Disease Prevention and Control Law.
The former says violators must go in front of “a justice of the peace, alderman, or magistrate of the county” and could be fined between $10 and $50 “and costs.” The latter says violators shall, upon conviction, be given a fine between $25 and $300 “together with costs” and if payment isn’t made, they can be imprisoned in county jail for up to 30 days.
Tarkowski noted, the fines laid out in those decades-old statutes are merely a baseline — with additional costs added, they could end up being much steeper, especially if business owners don’t comply after they are given warnings and formal citations.
“Eventually, we can get a court order to shut you down, and then you’re going to run into business licensing issues,” he said. “I wouldn’t suggest anybody disregard the order and say, ‘Oh, I’ll just pay the fine,’ because it’ll get worse.”
According to Pennsylvania State Police, business closures are the only coronavirus-related orders that carry enforcement mechanisms.
Stay-at-home orders, which as of Wednesday night will cover Lehigh, Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Erie, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton and Philadelphia counties, don’t technically carry penalties. Though Tarkowski noted, that doesn’t mean people who ignore it won’t be informally admonished.
If police officers “see a volleyball game going on in the park, they’re probably going to head over and say, ‘Hey guys, you’re under an order to stay at home,’” he said.
Like the police, Gov. Tom Wolf and other state officials have been circumspect about business closure enforcement.
“Ultimately, this depends on the people and businesses of Pennsylvania to make the right decision,” Wolf said in a Tuesday press conference. “If we don’t follow this, if we allow people to congregate, if we don’t stay at home, we’re putting other people in danger.”
County officials appear to be on the same page. Marian Moskowitz, who chairs the Chester County Board of Commissioners, said “this isn’t the time” for aggressive discipline.
And so far, she added, “we have not had a situation like that. Everybody has been stepping up to the plate.”