Assemblywoman Grace Meng stopped by a symposium sponsored by the Queens Chamber of commerce last Friday morning to outline several state small business initiatives to benefit both her Flushing district and New York City in general.

Meng was the keynote speaker at the Small Business Update Symposium held in Lang Auditorium at New York Hospital Queens in Flushing, and spoke about her own childhood growing up in a family that owned a small business.

“I know how tough it is owning a small business in New York City,” she told the crowd.

The current economic climate has been especially hard on small businesses, which generally operate on a small profit margin. Meng said when she took office, the first thing she did was send out a survey to small businesses, and the majority of them said their biggest concern was rising retail rents.

“Small business owners are coming into my office and complaining because rents in Flushing are more than some places in Manhattan,” the assemblywoman said.

She also said that the survey revealed that many businesses had trouble complying with the various rules and regulations that govern small businesses, and as such were being hit with high fines and penalties.

The Queens Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with local elected officials, has sponsored several legislative meet-and-greets between small business owners and city agencies to try and clear up confusion.

Meng also told the crowd that she has asked State Controller Thomas Dinapoli to undertake an economic study of Flushing, and he has agreed to do so.

“It’s hard to find solutions when you don’t know the statistics and data,” she said.

The assemblywoman said that the state is also working on several pieces of legislation to spur economic development, including a bill to offer a biotech tax credit to lure the medical industry to New York State, as well as grants and low-interest loans for green building projects.

Meng also explained a bill she recently sponsored that became law that would allow the state to use federal stimulus funds to extend unemployment benefits. New York State has the 23rd highest unemployment rate in the country at 8.9 percent, and the state has lost over 200,000 jobs since the start of the current recession.

“It’s been especially difficult, because small businesses are New York State’s number one employer,” she said.