Mayor Mamdani is directing his metropolis companies to work towards reducing down charges and fines for small companies.
Small companies in New York are required to fork up money for, amongst many different issues, the power to serve ice cream and set up fridges.
The manager order, signed by Mamdani on Wednesday, calls on the Deputy Mayor for Financial Justice, Julie Su, and 7 metropolis companies to make a listing of these varied fines, and units a timeline beneath which a few of them may be eradicated.
“You cannot tell the story of New York without our small businesses,” Mamdani mentioned in an announcement asserting the directive. “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.”
Mayor Mamdani is pictured at Sweets and Issues in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, after signing Govt Order 11 to create a listing and determine methods to chop the charges and fines that small companies pay in New York Metropolis. (Ed Reed / Mayoral Images Workplace)
Beneath the order, inside 45 days, seven metropolis companies — the Buildings, Client and Employee Safety, Environmental Safety, Fireplace, Well being and Psychological Hygiene, Sanitation and Transportation departments — should record out the charges and civil penalties they acquire and determine whether or not they are often diminished. After that, the companies are slated to work to nix “unnecessary” fines with new guidelines or laws.
Mamdani emphasised small companies all through his marketing campaign, together with in a video about halal meals cart costs that helped him achieve momentum as an underdog candidate.
On the marketing campaign trial, he pledged to slash small enterprise charges by half, and to nominate a “Mom and Pops Czar” to take action, although Wednesday’s announcement made no point out of both.
Ex-Mayor Adams additionally signed an identical govt order aimed toward decreasing fines for small companies. Requested about that on Wednesday, Mamdani mentioned Adams’ Metropolis Corridor seen small companies as a aspect effort, whereas his personal Metropolis Corridor sees them as “central” to its mission.
Mayor Mamdani will get a hug at Sweets and Issues in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, after signing Govt Order 11 to create a listing and determine methods to chop the charges and fines that small companies pay in New York Metropolis. (Ed Reed / Mayoral Images Workplace)
In a joint assertion, Randy Friends, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and Tom Grech, president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, praised the transfer however mentioned the mayor ought to set clearer objectives.
“Every Mayor over the past few decades has committed to doing an inventory of fines,” Friends and Grech, co-chairpersons of the 5 Borough Jobs Campaigns, mentioned. “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.”
