City Council on Thursday passed a bill aimed at reducing the size of the Big Apple “Bureaucratic Maze” of the rules required to open and operate a business.
The legislation, sponsored by City Councilwoman Julie Menin (D-Upper East Side), passed unanimously in council. If signed into law by Mayor Eric Adams, the bill could streamline the city’s convoluted process small businesses Proceed to obtain the proper permits and licenses.
“Businesses say that the New York City government is standing in the way of being able to operate their business effectively by creating a bureaucratic labyrinth of red tape,” said Menin, who previously owned a restaurant.
The bill would create an online “one stop shop” portal that would allow businesses to submit information on a single site, instead of coordinating it through several different agencies. The platform will allow them to check the status of applications and approvals at one place.
Right now, there are more than 5,000 rules and regulations and 200 business-related licenses and permits that the city’s businesses – depending on the type of profession – have to check-off for compliance with the law.
For example, to open a Barber’s shop The applicant has to go through 56 different stages involving 12 different personal interactions before approval.
Andrew Rigi, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said regulatory reform is desperately needed.
“Running a restaurant in NYC requires small business owners to navigate a large bureaucracy, the alphabet soup of different regulatory agencies like DOH, DOB, DEP, FDNY and DCWP, each with their own permits, requirements and systems,” he said. a statement.
“This overly complex regulatory maze creates confusion and red tape resulting in delays and uncertainty costing time, money and headaches for small business owners.”
Menin said the lengthy process should also be shortened as it further hampers entrepreneurs struggling to recover from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
“We haven’t done nearly enough to support our small businesses and yet they are the backbone of our city – it sucks and we wonder why a third of our city’s small businesses have closed during the pandemic! We learned in COVID that almost any conversation can be conducted online,” she said.
If approved by Adams, the city’s small business services would be required to build the new system by November 2023.