Mamdani’s ‘Mom-and-Pop’ Plan Doesn’t Cut Red Tape

Does more government involvement in the socioeconomic sphere make the life of an average New Yorker better? Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani thinks so, with big-government policies prioritizing economic redistribution, a fundamental aspect of socialist ideology.

Mamdani’s platform includes city-owned grocery stores, free buses, no-cost childcare, rent freezes, a $30 minimum wage, and small business reforms.

While the latter proposal is commendable and bipartisan, Mamdani’s solutions are, unfortunately, not. He has promised small businesses, which account for 98% of firms in the city and employ over half of the private sector workforce, a regulatory reform package focused on improving compliance.

Mamdani alleges to be a champion for the little guy, claiming he will “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%.” While his message resonates and it correctly identifies that the city’s systems can be punishingly slow, his agenda does not target root concerns for businesses.

Rather than removing any of the 6,000 regulations that cost small businesses time, money, and resources, Mamdani proposes that minimally reducing compliance expenses is the best strategy for making business operations faster, easier, and cheaper.

Violations such as labor non-compliance, sanitation issues, or building code infractions can cost owners thousands of dollars annually. The right solution is deregulation — to remove needless and onerous regulations and to ensure compliance with essential safeguards.

Instead, he has proposed more government bureaucracy, namely the “Mom and Pop Czar” Office. This entity, allegedly designed to promote small business interests, will work to halve fines and eliminate fees. Leaving thousands of bad regulations on the books and simply arbitrarily reducing fees is more likely to lead to confusion, harmful non-compliance, and situations that can be easily gamed — in short, a profit for lawyers and accountants but not for workers and customers.

This is more likely to undermine local trust in regulatory fairness. Firms that have invested in compliance in the past may feel penalized, creating an environment of social decohesion. This is a politically motivated and poor substitution for deregulation.

Speeding up permitting and making online applications easier should quicken the timeline for which small businesses can begin operations. New York City’s permitting process is complex and slow, taking several months and costing owners time, money, and resources. However, the mayor-elect’s plan lacks any detail on how to achieve a simpler permitting process and is more likely to be a false campaign promise than a serious effort to ease the burdens of New York City’s businesses.

Increasing funding for small businesses by 500% is intended to offer personalized support for owners in the form of grants, loans, and technical assistance. Mamdani will finance and expand the Business Express Service Teams (BEST), which offer one-to-one support and assist small businesses with bureaucratic hurdles.

Over-reliance on government assistance may harm entrepreneurial independence as it fosters governmental dependence and crowds out numerous private sector entities that provide the same kind of support to businesses. Scaling up BEST requires hiring and training more staff, risking inefficiencies and mismanagement of funds.

Instead of eliminating useless or obsolete regulations, he offers crushing tax increases and false promises mired in government bureaucracy. Mamdani’s policies do not address leading concerns for small businesses, those being the over 6,000 regulations that impede operations. He targets operational burdens and small fees, completely ignoring the primary costs for entrepreneurs — regulations.

Making compliance requirements less restrictive can best be achieved by eliminating the compliance requirement altogether. Removing the regulatory burdens that plague small business owners best fosters free market competition and economic growth.

Mamdani should recognize a simple truth: prudent deregulation is the only viable long-term solution, not government intervention.

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Nicole Huyer is a Senior Research Associate in The Heritage Foundation’s Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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This piece is a part of The Heritage Foundation’s Wealth and Innovation project.