Small-business leaders talk policy at summit

THE NINTH annual Small Business Economic Summit was held Friday at Bryant University in Smithfield. / PBN PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN
THE NINTH annual Small Business Economic Summit was held Friday at Bryant University in Smithfield. / PBN PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN

SMITHFIELD – More than 200 small-business owners and advocates met with Rhode Island lawmakers on Friday to discuss policy measures they hope will garner support in this year’s legislative session.
The meeting, dubbed the 9th Annual Small Business Summit, was hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Center for Women & Enterprise, and was held at Bryant University.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello, 20 other state representatives and seven state senators, attended the summit to listen to issues, new and old, that persist in the small-business community.
“The only way we’re going to resolve these issues and get better is if we talk, and we think that’s critical,” said Mark S. Hayward, district director of SBA Rhode Island.
Unreasonable property taxes, high costs of doing business in the state, transparency, labor issues and granting the governor line-item veto power on the budget were a sampling of the laundry list of issues brought up during the meeting.
Mark S. Deion, chairman of the summit’s economic development subcommittee, suggested each state agency create an online survey, so business owners and taxpayers could publicly rate customer service. The transparent measure would increase accountability, he said.
“The overall sentiment from our group today was that we all love this state. That’s why we’re here making recommendations,” Deion said. “We’re asking for transparency, accountability and a reduction of the cost of doing business.”
The participating state leaders largely spent the day listening, adding comment when applicable. But Raimondo addressed the crowd at the end, telling business leaders “there’s no silver bullet,” when it comes to solving all of the issues.
“I think there are great ideas. I took a lot of notes,” she said. “The hard part for us is how do we prioritize. What do we do this year, what do we do next year and what can we get done.”
Raimondo lauded legislation that passed last session, including the elimination of commercial sales tax on energy for nonmanufacturing businesses and the steps made toward trying to connect disjointed labor and training efforts. And while she didn’t tip her hand about what might be at the top of her wish list, Raimondo did say property taxes were a real issue.
“On taxes, I think our biggest problem is property taxes,” Raimondo said. “It doesn’t mean we should look at other taxes, but we have a problem with property taxes.”
The governor’s first big challenge this year, however, could be tolls, as she’s pushing to establish truck tolls in 14 locations throughout the state. The revenue collected from the tolls would go toward subsidizing her proposed infrastructure improvement plan RhodeWorks, which would allow the state to fix its bridges and roads. The measure failed to pass the House last session.
The summit’s subcommittee on taxes polled its members on tolls, and while it is a small sampling, results showed that 53 percent believe tolling would have a negative impact on the economy and 65 percent had a general mistrust of the government, saying it’s likely the tolls would eventually be expanded to include cars.
Raimondo, now in her second year, promised to stay focused in the new year.
“We’re going to keep our eye on reducing the points of friction in government,” Raimondo said. “But we have to stay positive … we’re either all going up together or we’re all going down together, and I think we’re going up.”

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