New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday asked his administration to identify ways to cut fees and fines for small businesses.
The mayor signed Executive Order 11, which directs the Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su and seven agencies to create a comprehensive inventory of fees and civil penalties, identify ways to reduce and streamline them, and advance policy reforms.
“You cannot tell the story of New York without our small businesses," Mamdani said, as he visited Sweets & Things in Cypress Hills. "Yet, our city has long made it too hard for these same businesses to open their doors, and to keep them open. With today’s Executive Order, we will bring that chapter to an end, instead delivering relief to businesses from the fines and fees that drive up their costs."
Small businesses face a complex web of over 6,000 regulations and rules, which make it harder to start or grow a business in New York, and drives up costs for businesses and customers alike, officials said.
After city agencies come up with their recommendations, officials will determine which fees can be eliminated, if legislative action is necessary, and will create a report on the feasibility of an amnesty and relief program for business owners within the next year.
“The small business owners who give this city its identity and vibrancy have too rarely been considered in the backrooms where decisions are made," said Su. "Not on our watch.”
One business coalition welcomed the move, but noted their desire to hear more detail.
"As leaders who hear from small businesses constantly about the need to reduce burdensome and bureaucratic red tape, Mayor Mamdani’s Executive Order is an important first step in following through on his campaign promise to decrease fines and fees by 50%," a joint statement from Randy Peers, president of Brooklyn Chamber and co-chair of the Five Borough Jobs Campaign, and Tom Grech, president of the Queens Chamber and co-chair of the Five Borough Jobs Campaign said. "However, every mayor over the past few decades has committed to doing an inventory of fines — if this is truly about helping small businesses, then the best way to achieve real measurable reform is giving agencies a clear year-over-year number that they must reduce fines by."
