The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce released its 2026 State Legislative Policy Agenda in late March, and the document offers a clear window into what the borough’s business community is most concerned about heading into the year — and what it’s asking Albany to do about it. The agenda, developed with input from the Chamber’s Small Business Committee and broader membership, focuses on four priority areas: rising business costs, workforce development, transportation connectivity, and commercial safety. Here’s a breakdown of what’s in it and why it matters for Staten Island.
Priority 1: Tackling Rising Costs
The first and most pressing concern in the Chamber’s agenda is cost. Staten Island’s small business owners — like their counterparts across the city — are dealing with a combination of pressures that has made simply keeping the lights on more expensive than it was just a few years ago. The agenda highlights rising expenses in four specific categories: taxes, insurance premiums, utility costs, and regulatory compliance requirements.
The Chamber is asking Albany for policies that improve “affordability and predictability” for small businesses — language that points toward stable tax structures, limits on mandated cost increases, and regulatory relief for smaller employers who may lack the administrative capacity to navigate complex compliance requirements. For Staten Island in particular, where the business base skews heavily toward independently owned shops, service providers, and restaurants rather than large corporate employers, these costs land differently than in Manhattan or downtown Brooklyn.
One area the Chamber has specifically flagged is insurance — a cost that has risen sharply for many New York businesses in recent years, driven in part by increases in claims and litigation costs. Business owners in the borough have reported that certain lines of commercial insurance have become both more expensive and harder to find through traditional carriers, creating real instability for small operations.
Priority 2: Workforce Development
The second priority in the agenda focuses on workforce. The Chamber is advocating for expanded access to vocational training, career pathways, and talent pipelines that align with employer needs on Staten Island. This is a consistent theme in local business advocacy: the gap between the skills that employers say they need and the preparation that available workers bring to interviews.
Staten Island has several anchor industries where this gap is particularly visible — healthcare, construction trades, hospitality, and logistics. The borough’s proximity to the Port of New York and New Jersey, one of the busiest ports on the East Coast, makes logistics and trade-related employment a significant local sector. The Chamber’s agenda is pushing for state investment in training programs that connect Staten Island residents to these jobs, rather than relying on workers commuting in from other boroughs or the tri-state area.
On the youth workforce side, the agenda also signals interest in programs that create stronger pathways from local high schools and community colleges into jobs with Staten Island employers — reducing the “brain drain” dynamic where young people who grow up on the island commute to jobs elsewhere in the city.
Priority 3: Transportation Connectivity
Transportation is where Staten Island’s policy challenges are most distinctively its own. The borough is the only one of the five that lacks direct subway service, making it more dependent on buses, the Staten Island Railway, the Staten Island Ferry, and — for a significant share of residents and workers — personal vehicles and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
The Chamber’s 2026 agenda calls for investments that “improve mobility, reduce commute times, and enhance access to jobs and commercial corridors across Staten Island.” In practice, this encompasses several ongoing conversations: the future of the North Shore rail project (connecting St. George to the North Shore communities), bus rapid transit improvements, and ensuring that any citywide transportation policy changes don’t disproportionately disadvantage a borough where driving is a practical necessity for many residents and workers.
Congestion pricing — which began charging vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street — has been a particular concern on Staten Island, where many commuters must drive to a ferry or bus terminal and then pay a toll on the Verrazzano. The Chamber has pushed for adjustments to ensure Staten Island residents are not double-tolled in ways that put them at a competitive disadvantage relative to commuters from other boroughs.
Priority 4: Safety and Commercial Viability
The fourth pillar of the agenda focuses on safety — specifically retail theft, fraud, and what the Chamber describes as protecting “safe and vibrant commercial districts.” This connects to a broader statewide conversation about organized retail crime, which has become a significant concern for independent retailers in New York in recent years. The Chamber is advocating for stronger state-level enforcement tools and penalties that make retail theft a more meaningful deterrent for repeat offenders.
The safety agenda also connects to a citywide development: in early 2026, Mayor Mamdani appointed a Staten Island native as Commissioner and Chair of the Business Integrity Commission — a city agency focused on corruption and fraud in the trade waste industry, as well as worker and traffic safety in commercial carting. The appointment was noted locally as a sign of Staten Island representation at the mayoral level on issues that directly affect local business operations.
The Bigger Picture: Staten Island’s Economic Identity
What comes through in the Chamber’s 2026 agenda is a borough making a clear case for equitable treatment in state policy. Staten Island consistently contributes to the city’s tax base and economy while arguing that it receives less than a proportionate share of infrastructure investment, transit service, and policy attention. The agenda is partly a list of specific asks and partly a statement of identity: that Staten Island’s business community is distinct from the rest of the city’s in meaningful ways, and that policy solutions designed for Manhattan or Brooklyn don’t always translate cleanly to the island.
The Chamber’s four-priority framework — costs, workforce, transportation, safety — maps directly onto the concerns that show up consistently in conversations with local business owners across Staten Island’s main commercial corridors: Forest Avenue on the North Shore, Hylan Boulevard in the mid-island, and the St. George and Bay Ridge waterfront areas. The agenda gives those individual concerns a collective political voice at the state level.
What You Need to Know
- Who released it: The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce released its 2026 State Legislative Policy Agenda on March 27, 2026.
- Four priorities: Rising business costs (taxes, insurance, utilities, compliance); workforce training and career pipelines; transportation connectivity and mobility; commercial safety and anti-fraud measures.
- Transportation focus: The agenda specifically flags double-tolling concerns for Staten Island commuters and calls for targeted transit investment in the borough.
- Commercial safety: The Chamber is pushing for stronger state enforcement tools against organized retail theft and fraud affecting local businesses.
- Citywide connection: A Staten Island native was recently appointed Commissioner of the Business Integrity Commission, giving the borough a voice at the mayoral level on trade industry issues.
- Get involved: The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce holds regular business events and advocacy days in Albany. Find their calendar at sichamber.com.
- Related reading: See our guide to NYC’s borough presidents and what their offices actually do, and our Staten Island policy watch on City of Yes for more on how recent policy changes are landing on the island.
If you own or run a business on Staten Island, the Chamber’s 2026 agenda is worth reading — not because Albany always delivers on these kinds of asks, but because understanding what your borough’s organized business voice is asking for helps you understand the policy environment you’re operating in. The agenda is available in full at the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce website at sichamber.com.
