If you regulate it, businesses will come … and tell you how to better manage the industry, which fines and processes are outdated, which need tweaks and which should be eliminated altogether – or at least that’s the recent experience of R.I. Department of Business Regulation Director Elizabeth M. Tanner.
Business regulatory information is “readily available,” said Tanner, who has directed DBR since last October, “but not easy to find.” This, she explained, is why the most common complaint her office receives is, “How am I supposed to know [which regulations apply to my industry]?”
In her nearly one year in the position, Tanner has made it her mission to do away with arcane business regulations, fees and procedures she says are no longer applicable in the 21st century.
For example, after hosting two focus groups convening food-truck owners, police and fire, and city and town representatives, DBR designed a bill recently passed into law that in 2019 will streamline the license procedure for Rhode Island-based food trucks. Currently, food-truck owners must register and pay a fee to each of the cities and towns in which they wish to operate.
Adam Batchelder, owner of 1-year-old Smoke & Squeal BBQ out of Pawtucket, called the current requirement a “time-consuming hassle.”
“Instead of being able to focus on putting out a good product and serving the customer,” Batchelder said, much of his time is spent driving across the state securing licenses and completing inspections, often the same processes repeated miles apart, ad nauseum.
Effective Jan. 1, under the State Mobile Food Establishment Registration Act, food-truck owners can apply for a statewide license for all 39 Rhode Island municipalities.
Batchelder, who testified on behalf of DBR’s bill, said the measure allows Rhode Island, already a well-known “food mecca,” to market itself as a more “business-friendly” state.
Once the measure goes into effect, he hopes the streamlining will lead to easier operations and more “peace of mind” for food-truck owners.
Tanner and DBR didn’t stop there.
A package of multiple efforts to streamline business operations, known as the Small Business Friendliness Omnibus bill, was passed in the latest General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo July 26.
‘[It’s] one less thing you have to do in terms of paperwork and time.’
NICK GARRISON, Foolproof Brewing Co. president
One measure, the elimination of an annual $100 liquor bond paid by Rhode Island brewers, has been widely supported by the local industry, including Nick Garrison, president and founder of Foolproof Brewing Co. in Pawtucket.
In the brewery’s six years, said Garrison, the bond fee was a “hassle and nuisance.” Remembering the atmosphere when he testified in front of the House Finance Committee advocating for the bond’s elimination, he said, “Everyone [in the industry] agreed it was hurting breweries more than bringing in meaningful revenue.”
Garrison said elimination of the bond means “one less expense … one less thing you have to do in terms of paperwork and time.”
Garrison is also grateful for the elimination of a 7 percent sales tax on all kegs owned by breweries, a measure also addressed by the omnibus bill. Similar to the repeal of the bond fee, the Rhode Island brewing industry – which Garrison said was initially unaware of the tax – worked as a whole to craft successful legislation repealing the tax they deemed “unnecessary” and a burden.
Yet the keg tax, said Garrison, who is still paying off back taxes assessed on the stainless-steel barrels the company purchased in 2012 at its launch, will have a longer-term impact on the young company.
Further examples of deregulation, processes editing and fee elimination in the omnibus bill include elimination of a fee to serve certain frozen desserts, elimination of a fee paid by mobile home tenants to register a complaint, extension of food-safety manager license renewals from every three years to every five years, elimination of a $1 fee for liquor-license copies, nullification of cosmetology zoning requirements, elimination of the need for contractor notarization and a nearly 85 percent reduction in the alcoholic beverage manufacturing and wholesale licensing fee from $3,000 to $500.
In addition, the bill includes $500,000 to “at least” double the number of R.I. Commerce Corp. Small Business Assistance Program loans awarded to local entrepreneurs. Thirty-five such loans were awarded in 2017.
“Clearly, we’re listening” to the needs of Rhode Island business owners, said Tanner, who cited DBR outreach as the impetus for many of the regulation changes tackled in the omnibus bill.
To date, she feels DBR streamlining efforts have been on the whole successful and would like to see more industries impacted by the campaign.
She looks to repeat the process next year with a second omnibus bill and is calling for business owners to make known to DBR any regulation, fee or process they would like to see investigated.
Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey or contact her via email, Gowdey-backus@PBN.com.
