Most media coverage of Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s new mayor, has focused on his socialist agenda to raise taxes on high earners and corporations. Many millionaires are already plotting escape routes out of the city.

But it turns out that small businesses are already bleeding from New York’s oppressive taxes and regulations and many of their owners fear it will now only get worse. Last year, the Big Apple saw the sharpest decline in business growth since COVID brought the local economy to a standstill in 2020.

The city reports that more than 8,400 businesses shut down in the second quarter of 2025 –

the most recent period for which data is available – while only 3,500 opened their doors. The 3-month decline wiped out nearly all of the city’s start-up gains since 2022.

Mamdani realizes he’s already facing a business recession, so he’s offering proposals to cut fines and fees for small businesses in half.

But any relief that would bring would be dwarfed by Mamdani’s plan to raise the minimum wage for entry-level workers to $30-per-hour by 2030.

The more Mamdani implements his radical agenda, the more New Yorkers in every income bracket will accelerate flight from the city – which has lost some 430,000 people since 2020.