Roosevelt Island Assembly Member Micah Kellner Introduces Bill To Repeal LLC Publication Requirement - Sign Why 2 K Petition & Help NY Entrepreneurs

Image of Assembly Member Micah Kellner

Roosevelt Island's Assembly Member Micah Kellner, whose district also includes Manhattan's Upper East Side, has introduced a bill that will make New York start up entrepreneurs and emerging businesses very happy - the repeal of the publication requirement for Limited Liability Companies (LLC) announcing their formation.

Image from Amazon

According to Crains NY Business:

A group of techies is launching an effort today to get the state to eliminate the law compelling new limited liability corporations to publish notices announcing their formation. The requirement costs fledgling businesses up to $2,000.

New York law requires every new LLC to announce its existence in two print publications such as Crain's for six consecutive weeks, within 120 days of formation...

The New York Tech Meetup group is leading the efforts (referred to as Why 2 K) to repeal the publishing requirement for LLC's asserting:

1. The publication requirement (along with standard corporate filing fees) can cost as much as $2,000 (which is over 10 times the cost of forming or operating an LLC in Delaware ($140.00) and California ($70.00), and 4 times the cost of forming or operating in Massachusetts ($500)). This is a very expensive burden for New York to place on emerging businesses, especially when the requirement has no discernable benefit;
2. Any person starting a new business would prefer to spend this money more strategically;
3. The law often leads business owners to select a less suitable business entity, such as a corporation (which is inappropriate for many types of early-stage companies) as an alternative to complying with the publication requirement. It might be noted that the publication requirement actually cuts against the purpose of the New York Limited Liability Company Law which was to create an entity with limited liability, more flexibility, fewer formalities and tax advantages; and
4. The law often causes business owners to consider forming in a different state, robbing New York of business revenue and jobs.

The LLC formation publication requirement is also unnecessary since the information is already available online. According to Assembly Member Kellner:

This law made sense when print publications were the primary method of communication, but that's no longer the case. In the internet era, this is a no-brainer. I have heard from a lot of constituents who tell me about how the burdensome costs of these pointless ads stand in their way as they try to start small businesses -- everyone from piano teachers to graphic artists and many more. They're forced to pay thousands of dollars for ads nobody sees. The current situation is killing jobs -- my bill fixes this by putting the notices online, at a fraction of the cost.

If you support this initiative to repeal the LLC publishing requirement please sign the NY Tech Meetup Why 2 K online petition available here.