Six Democratic candidates for the Greenwich Village and Chelsea Assembly seat at a recent forum laid out measures to help small businesses, often citing relief by cutting through a jungle of red tape.
The group spoke at a 66th Assembly District small business panel on May 14 organized by the Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, sponsored by Con Edison, to an audience of around 75 at the Greenwich House Music School.
Furhan Amad, Corinne Arnold, Ryder Kessler, Jeannine Kiely, David Siffert and Ben Yee are vying to succeed Deborah Glick, who has held the seat for around 35 years and endorsed Kiely.
Ahmad has worked as a police officer, firefighter and EMT; Arnold started E-Z Election Solutions and leads her own co-op Board; Kessler is co-executive director of Abundance New York, advocating for housing and improved public transit.
Kiely is the Democratic district leader, former chair of Community Board 2 who co-founded the Literacy Academy Collective and Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden.
Siffert is a civil rights lawyer, NYU law professor and head of the NYU’s State Government Initiative, and Yee works at an education technology startup and represents Lower Manhattan on the Democratic State Committee
Candidates targeted red tape, described strategies to lower commercial rent, provide incentives for long-term leases to local companies, ease taxes on downtown businesses, impose penalties for long-term vacancies and hold down insurance costs.
Reduce regulations
Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jesse Gericke pointed to the Mamdani administration’s initiative to reduce red tape, noting proliferating permits needed to open leading to months of delays.
“It’s too complex. It’s unnecessary,” Gericke said. “It’s old rules being asked to be followed. The amount has to be reduced.”
Manhattan Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jessica Walker said government too often seeks to tax not assist small business.
“We have been regulating them, taxing them and litigating them as though they were a luxury,” Walker said. “The businesses here are the reason anyone walks down these streets in the first place.”
While the state takes measures to “build, baby, build,” candidates called for the state to ease regulations to help small businesses.
“Why is it so hard to start a small business?” Ahmad asked. “We should be helping small businesses so big businesses don’t come in and replace them.”
Arnold said red tape costs time and money and “we need to streamline it and make it easier,” noting once regulations are “more under control” that “the cost of running a business will go down.”
Yee said state regulatory approvals can delay small-business openings by months, when they should take days.
Kiely called for using technology to cut red tape as well as more automatic applications for things like Medicaid and SNAP.
“I think that’s a tech issue as well as a desire at the state level,” she said. “There’s so much bureaucracy.”
Arnold said Local Law 11, regarding scaffolding, is creating a long, costly limbo and congestion pricing is impacting workers and customers, not just motorists.
“I think we have to look at what congestion pricing is doing to our businesses,” she said. “We have to figure out how to thread the needle.”
“A lot of times we think about the wage side, but we don’t think about the cost side,” Kessler said, noting red tape, housing, utilities, taxes and healthcare boost costs. “There’s so much we can do to tackle costs.”
Rent
Caroline Weaver, moderator and owner of The Locavore Variety Store, said “getting a lease is one thing, keeping it is another” as landlords (themselves business owners) often “wait for big fish.”
“We must be able to protect commercial tenants that have done the right thing,” said Ahmad, calling for a variation on a Good Eviction law for business. “Their leases should be renewed. Or they should have a process where their history is reviewed and their lease isn’t abruptly ended.”
Kiely favors a form of Good Cause Eviction legislation as well as standard business leases, while saying businesses shouldn’t be rewarded for long vacant storefronts.
“Owners with lots of property take write offs against revenue-generating property by keeping something vacant,” she said.
Arnold said it’s possible to incentivize landlords for giving long-term leases to local businesses.
“We need to make sure we are balancing the interests,” Yee said. “It’s important that commercial tenants have a reliable lease and know they’ll be operating into the future.”
Kessler questioned an “appetite in Albany for commercial rent control,” but said measures could be taken to improve commercial rents.
Kiely called for eliminating a commercial rent tax south of 96th Street on small businesses as a quick, direct way to help.
Kessler said “insurance rates are skyrocketing” as insurers insist on work done, or revoke policies, while Arnold said “we can fix insurance partially on the state level,” through legislation.
Arnold said New York also needs “health insurance for everyone,” noting the biggest risk of starting a business “is managing healthcare cost.”
Ahmad called for more support for artists, who he called “a vital resource” who could be helped by incentivizing artist spaces.
Retrain
Many described AI as a serious threat and tool for small business, while Kiely called for more investment in CUNY, SUNY, trades and apprenticeships.
“I don’t think we should allow AI to create massive winners and massive losers,” Arnold said. “We need to strike a balance.”
Yee said “we need job retraining” and “to make sure people are up to date to use artificial intelligence” and incentives to hire those who lose jobs due to AI.
Ahmad also called for more worker training, especially as AI modifies or eliminates entry-level jobs.
And Yee said “the state should have a forward ai thinking policy” to bring jobs benefiting from the AI boom, such as biotech.
Arnold said “we need a lot more attention to programs that already exist,” noting business owners need to know about existing help.
“The legislators who actually move the needle for small business are almost never the loudest on election nights,” Walker said of legislators’ role. “They read the legislation, find one line and fix it before anyone even notices.”
