City Hall to create task force to lower small-biz fines

As reported by Crain’s:

The de Blasio administration plans to announce on Friday the creation of Small Business First, a cross-departmental initiative helmed by the Mayor's Office of Operations and the Department of Small Business Services, aimed at reducing the amount of fines levied against the city's small businesses. As Crain's reported in March, many small business were concerned that the mayor would fail to deliver on his promise to reduce the burdensome environment of confusing levies left behind by the Bloomberg administration.

The new initiative closely resembles a package of reforms that Mr. de Blasio proposed during his tenure as public advocate. It does not include a mechanism for appealing fines levied during the previous administration, something that many Bloomberg critics called on Mr. de Blasio to implement.

One critic was Queens state Sen. Jose Peralta. "Many small business owners started to feel like ATMs," he said. "Fortunately, Mayor de Blasio is hitting the reset button," he said.

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