NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday signed an executive order directing city agencies to inventory and reduce the fines and fees paid by small businesses, part of a broader effort by his administration to cut costs and simplify regulations.
Executive Order 11 requires seven city agencies, under the direction of Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, to compile a comprehensive list of the fees and civil penalties they impose on businesses and identify opportunities to reduce or streamline them. City officials say small businesses currently face more than 6,000 rules and regulations, a system they argue discourages entrepreneurship and raises costs for both owners and customers.
Mamdani signed the order at the counter of a locally owned small business in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn.
“You cannot tell the story of New York without our small businesses,” Mamdani said in a statement. “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.”
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Under the order, agencies have 45 days to complete an inventory of the fees and civil penalties they collect and assess whether they can be reduced administratively. Within 90 days, the agencies must determine which fees are unnecessary and could be eliminated through the city’s rulemaking process. Within 180 days, officials are to identify additional fees and penalties that would require City Council approval to change.
The order also directs agencies to prepare, within one year, a report evaluating the feasibility of an amnesty and relief program for business owners who owe outstanding fines or penalties.
Su said the initiative is intended to make small business owners active partners in city government, rather than an afterthought.
“The small business owners who give this city its identity and vibrancy have too rarely been considered in the backrooms where decisions are made,” Su said in a statement. “For us, uplifting small businesses is a core responsibility of city government.”
The administration said the findings from the inventory and reviews will be used to advance policy reforms in the coming months aimed at reducing regulatory burdens and lowering operating costs for small businesses across the city.