A new Center for an Urban Future study features ideas from two dozen small business owners and experts for what New York City and State government should do right now to help the city’s small businesses survive the coronavirus crisis.
The report includes policy ideas from the founders of iconic New York companies like Brooklyn Brewery, Bareburger, and UncommonGoods as well the leaders of several small business assistance organizations, from the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation and Start Small Think Big to Hot Bread Kitchen and the Business Center for New Americans.
The report includes more than 50 specific policy suggestions.
Some of the ideas include:
- Prioritize emergency grants over loans, but expand eligibility so that it isn’t just companies with under 5 employees that benefit
- Cap third-party delivery commissions
- Issue moratorium on evictions
- Ensure FEMA buys from local businesses, and not just large food services contractors
- Mandate insurance payouts for business interruption
- Defer real estate taxes and rent from April to September
- Subsidize difference between part-time and full-time pay
- Suspend fines that don’t pose immediate hazard to the public and workers
- Waive utility costs for small businesses while protecting utility companies with a tax credit or bailout
- Leverage government purchasing power to support local businesses
- Suspend fines, taxes, penalties, utility bills, and insurance premiums
- Set up a centralized fund to coordinate support from mission-driven lenders
- Provide online business recovery training
Click the link to read the full report, titled Supporting Small Business Through Coronavirus.
The Center for an Urban Future (CUF) is a leading New York City-based think tank focused on expanding economic opportunity in New York. CUF receives general operating support from The Clark Foundation and the Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation. We are also grateful for support from Fisher Brothers Foundation for the Center for an Urban Future’s Middle Class Jobs Project, and ongoing support from a number of other philanthropic funders.
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