Byzantine. Labyrinth. Laborious. Outdated. These are all words that could — and have — been used to describe New York’s thicket of over 300,000 regulations that businesses and residents alike have to wade through just to keep the lights on.
The Empire State is a global hub for industry and entrepreneurship, and our lawmakers have taken pains to keep it this way. But recently, business owners have been sounding the alarm about what a growing regulatory web of well-intentioned guidelines is actually costing them in time, money and momentum.
With affordability dominating headlines recently, it surprises me that these complaints haven’t become more of a political flashpoint. After all, it is this bureaucratic morass that forces businesses to close their doors, drives building projects to fold or balloon in cost and pushes would-be entrepreneurs to scrap their ideas before they get off the ground — all factors that ultimately raise prices for consumers on everything from groceries to rent.
And these costs don’t stop with the consumer. They snowball into a larger, more existential price tag — a drag on the fundamental economic engine that New York depends on. Small businesses accounted for 99.8% of New York business in 2025. When they struggle, it’s a cost problem, a growth problem and a macroeconomic problem for New York’s standing as a nucleus for innovation and opportunity more broadly.
Unfortunately, too many of our leaders have recently been taking steps in the wrong direction, proffering sweeping suites of tax proposals that would dump yet another cost on the plate of small businesses already just trying to keep their head above water. With suggestions like these floating, it’s hard not to feel like our concerns have been falling on deaf ears.
How can we all benefit from EXPRESS NY?
That is, until recently: In February, Gov. Kathy Hochul launched EXPRESS NY (Expediting Processes and Regulations to Enable Streamlined Services), a statewide effort to root out the burdensome, outdated regulations dragging down our businesses and New York economy at large.
The premise is straightforward: take a closer look at New York’s regulations and cull those that aren’t working. Following an earlier directive from Hochul in October, state leaders have already identified more than 100 regulations that are redundant, obsolete or simply unnecessary. Now, the real work begins to redo, rework or remove them in favor of measures that work with, not against, New York’s business owners.
EXPRESS NY isn’t a sweeping ideological overhaul. It’s a targeted, commonsense audit that pulls up more seats at the table for the residents and small business owners who actually power New York’s economy. New York’s greatest competitive advantage has never been its tax incentives or its geography. It’s been the understanding that this is a place where things are possible, where you can show up with a good idea and a willingness to work and actually build something. Every unnecessary regulation that gets cut is a small vote for that idea. Every redundant rule that gets removed is one less reason for a founder to look elsewhere.
EXPRESS NY won’t fix everything overnight, but, unlike recent tax proposals, it’s exactly the type of policy that shows New Yorkers their lawmakers are still listening — that Albany is ready to crack open the books and crack down on the anchors dragging down New York’s small businesses and industry at large. Here’s hoping Albany keeps moving in this direction, and not deeper into the pile.
Justin Wilcox is the executive director of Upstate United.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY’s small businesses are drowning. This lifeline can help | Opinion
Reporting by Justin Wilcox, Special to the USA TODAY Network / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Justin Wilcox, Special to the USA TODAY Network | USA TODAY Network
