Courtesy Long Island City Partnership/Steven Speliotis
NYC Business Groups Push Affordability Talk with Incoming Mayor
By MOHAMED FARGHALY
mfarghaly@queensledger.com
A coalition of business groups from across New York City on Tuesday unveiled an “Affordability Agenda for Job Creators,” urging Mayor-elect Mamdani to partner with the private sector to ease costs for small businesses as he prepares to take office in the coming weeks.
The agenda, released by the Five Borough Jobs Campaign, outlines a series of proposals aimed at cutting red tape, reducing fines and fees, and streamlining how businesses interact with city agencies. Coalition leaders say those changes would help businesses reinvest, hire more workers and stabilize neighborhoods facing rising costs.
“With the new mayor coming in in a few short weeks, it’s important that the business community work with the new mayor,” said Laura Rothrock, president of the Long Island City Partnership. “It’s important to have public-private partnerships for success, for him to be able to deliver on his agenda, which is really focused on affordability.”
The Long Island City Partnership, a membership-based economic development organization founded in 1979, represents a wide mix of retail, industrial, office and property-owning businesses in western Queens. The group also operates the city’s largest business improvement district, covering a rapidly growing area with thousands of employers.
Rothrock said that diversity is why the organization joined the five-year-old coalition, which brings together chambers of commerce, business improvement districts and economic development groups across all five boroughs.
“We work really closely with all types of businesses,” she said. “That’s why we wanted to work with this coalition — because we have a lot of overlap in our concern and our agenda for job creation and helping especially small businesses.”
Among the most prominent proposals in the agenda is a call for a temporary halt on most fines and fees for small businesses during the first 90 days of the new administration, with exceptions for health and safety violations. The coalition says the pause would give City Hall time to assess how to reduce penalties more permanently.
“Every time there is a new mayor, there’s a lot of talk about cutting red tape for small businesses,” Rothrock said. “There’s always room for improvement, especially with new technology, but we think you need to start fresh and give businesses a break on fines and fees — unless it’s something egregious related to health and safety.”
The agenda also calls for reducing certain fines and fees by up to 50% and for appointing a Small Business Director within the proposed Department of Community Safety — an idea Mamdani has previously discussed — to ensure business concerns are considered alongside public safety efforts.
“Businesses across the five boroughs are being squeezed from every direction – including rising supply costs, higher fees, and fewer resources to keep their doors open,” said Queens Chamber of Commerce President and Five Borough Jobs Campaign Co-Chair Tom Grech. “Our agenda offers the new administration a focused and actionable framework to expand economic mobility and ensure that every borough participates in the city’s growth to create a more affordable city.”
Quality-of-life issues, Rothrock said, remain a daily challenge for businesses in Queens and citywide, including sanitation, flooding, public safety and slow responses to 311 complaints.
“If people don’t feel safe and if the streets aren’t clean, they’re not going to want to go to a business,” she said. “Employees also aren’t going to want to commute into an office when the environment doesn’t feel clean and safe.”
The coalition is also pushing for increased investment in the city’s Department of Small Business Services, which partners with local business groups but currently faces an 18% vacancy rate, according to Rothrock.
“It’s important for the new administration to put resources into SBS,” she said. “By funding SBS and hiring great talent, it helps organizations like mine at the neighborhood level, and that then helps businesses directly.”
The agenda defines affordability not only as lowering costs for businesses, but as creating conditions that allow employers to grow and hire.
“If businesses are spending less on fines and fees, and it’s easier to get permits to invest, they have more flexibility to hire more people and grow,” Rothrock said.
Coalition leaders emphasized that the proposals are not intended to undermine labor protections and said continued dialogue with labor groups and city officials would be essential.
“I think it’s part of a larger dialogue,” Rothrock said. “It’s important to have ongoing conversations about how this agenda could be strengthened.”
Ultimately, Rothrock said, the message to the incoming administration is simple.
“Businesses are really crucial to the economic vitality of New York City,” she said. “In order for the mayor’s agenda to succeed, he needs to work with the private sector and coalitions like ours, because we’re on the ground talking to businesses every day.”
The coalition said it plans to track progress on the agenda over time, working with City Hall, the City Council and newly appointed agency leaders in the months ahead.
“It’s a time for change,” Rothrock said. “Hopefully that means positive change.”
