SMALL BUSINESSES

Small businesses are the backbone of SD-17, but rising rents, vacant storefronts, and a state law that treats a one-person bodega identically to a 99-employee firm are weakening our neighborhood corridors. We will fight to improve commercial conditions and give our smallest businesses a fair shot.

What We Will Do

Define and codify ‘microbusiness’ in New York State Economic Development Law. New York State currently defines a small business as any firm with under 100 employees — treating a one-person bodega the same as a 99-employee company. We will introduce legislation creating a microbusiness subcategory for businesses with 10 or fewer employees, unlocking targeted grants, a 60-day cure period before fines are issued for non-dangerous violations, and a requirement that agencies track violation data by business size. Massachusetts has already done this. New York should too.

Require budget approvals and payment pathways before contract work begins, and launch ContractStat. In 2024, over 7,000 unpaid invoices worth more than $1 billion sat in the city’s procurement system — approximately 4,000 of them, worth $861 million, owed to nonprofits delivering services in communities like ours. 90% of human service contracts were late-registered, meaning organizations started work with no contract and no pathway to payment. ContractStat will require all contracting agencies to publicly report contract approval timelines, invoice processing times, and reimbursement schedules — creating accountability and eliminating the backlogs that hurt our smallest providers most.

Create and expand Business Improvement Districts in Bensonhurst and Sunset Park. We will revive the long-delayed 86th Street Bensonhurst BID and expand the Sunset Park 5th Avenue BID to 7th and 8th Avenues, bringing supplemental sanitation, graffiti cleanup, trash receptacles, security, events, marketing, and city-agency support to corridors that have gone without consistent maintenance for too long.