New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has outlined reforms aimed at easing burdens on small businesses, including cutting fines and boosting support funding. But some policy analysts argue the measures fall short of addressing the city’s dense regulatory framework. The proposals are part of a broader platform that emphasizes expansive social spending and economic redistribution.
Zohran Mamdani, recently elected as New York City mayor, has promised a series of initiatives to support small businesses, which account for about 98% of firms in the city and employ more than half of the private sector workforce, according to city data cited by The Daily Wire and other outlets.
Mamdani’s broader platform includes city-owned grocery stores, free buses, no-cost childcare, rent freezes and a proposed $30 minimum wage, alongside targeted changes to how City Hall treats small firms.
As part of his small business agenda, Mamdani has pledged to “cut small business fines in half, speed up permitting and make online applications easier, and increase funding for 1:1 small business support by 500%,” according to his campaign materials and public statements. Supporters say these steps are meant to address what even critics describe as punishingly slow and complex city systems, where permitting and compliance processes can take months and consume significant time and money for owners.
Central to his approach is the creation of a “Mom-and-Pop Czar” — a new position or office intended to promote small business interests by cutting fines and fees and coordinating efforts to accelerate permits and applications. Mamdani has also proposed a sharp funding increase for New York City’s Business Express Service Teams (BEST), which provide one-on-one assistance to small businesses with permitting and regulatory compliance. His plan calls for boosting BEST’s budget from roughly $5 million to about $25 million, a 500% increase, according to reporting from local and national outlets.
Critics, including Nicole Huyer, a senior research associate at The Heritage Foundation writing in an opinion piece for The Daily Wire, argue that these proposals do little to confront what she describes as more than 6,000 city regulations that impose significant costs on businesses through violations related to labor rules, sanitation requirements and building codes. Huyer contends that focusing on reducing compliance costs without removing what she sees as “needless and onerous” rules risks confusion, harmful non-compliance and perceptions of unfairness for firms that have already invested heavily in meeting existing standards.
Huyer and other deregulation advocates further warn that expanding programs like BEST and adding a “Mom-and-Pop Czar” could increase bureaucracy and spur greater reliance on government assistance, which they say may undermine entrepreneurial independence and crowd out private-sector advisory services. In their view, easing the burden on small businesses should center on reviewing and eliminating obsolete or duplicative regulations while preserving essential safeguards, rather than layering new offices and subsidies on top of the current rulebook.
Supporters of Mamdani’s agenda counter that cutting fines and fees, speeding up permits and investing more in hands-on support could help reverse what some analysts describe as an exodus of small firms from New York City by making it cheaper and simpler to start and maintain a business. They argue that, combined with his wider agenda on housing, transit and childcare, the small business package is intended to keep owners, workers and customers in the city and shore up the local storefronts that define many neighborhoods.
