Small businesses in New York City have saved $22 million in costs connected with municipal fines over the last year, according to Mayor Adams, who touted the savings Thursday as part of a plan to cut red tape and expenses for mom-and-pop businesses.
“Every dollar we take away from a business, it impacts on their ability to hire, their ability to expand their businesses — and we don’t want to do that,” Adams said at a press conference outside the Queens bakery Leidylicious, which held its grand opening Thursday.
“We’re going to continue to do our best to allow small businesses to continue to grow and thrive in the city,” he added.
Before taking office, Adams vowed to scale back red tape for small business owners and others who are required to interact with the city’s bureaucracy. A week before his inauguration, he appointed Melanie LaRocca as his chief efficiency officer. In the days after, he launched an initiative to identify the types of citations and fines most commonly levied by city agencies.
That led to scaled-back fines and more warnings before penalties are issued, a program that falls under the Department of Small Business Services and is now tracked through the city’s Business Express Service Team, or BEST, a free service that has so far assisted about 2,200 businesses.
Each time a compliance officer from that team interacts with a business, they record the estimated value of a fine or violation that they helped its owner avoid. The $22 million savings for small businesses Adams announced Thursday is derived from those records, according to a city official.
Leidy Cardona, the owner of Leidylicious Bakery, said she’s one of the program’s beneficiaries and praised it for the help it offered her.
“Thanks to the help I received with licenses and permits from the SBS New York BEST team, my vision become a reality even faster,” she said. “I’m happy now to share it with all of you.”