PROVIDENCE – Lt. Gov. Daniel J. McKee, the incoming governor, indicated on Tuesday that while he supports R.I. Commerce Corp.’s pre-pandemic efforts to attract large employers to the state, he also wants to see small businesses become a bigger priority.
During an interview with Providence Business News, McKee also said that Stefan Pryor, the state’s secretary of commerce, told him that he is “leaving his options open” regarding his future with the agency. McKee did not say Pryor would be leaving the quasi-public agency and/or joining outgoing Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, the nominee for U.S. Commerce secretary, in Washington, D.C.
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Matt Sheaff, director of communications at R.I. Commerce, declined to comment.
McKee said that the state needs to focus on the big businesses that R.I. Commerce has long supported, “but the small-business community has been clearly left out. In the current environment we know the small businesses are struggling. So, we need to put an additional focus on that” – and give equal support to small businesses.
McKee said he thinks Pryor will continue “to complete the projects” he has been working on during the Raimondo administration. “I think he is going to keep his options open,” said McKee, noting that Pryor has been helpful with the agency’s transition to his administration.
Pryor began at R.I. Commerce in 2015, when Raimondo took office and appointed him to spearhead the agency. Under his leadership, the agency created jobs and helped reduce the unemployment rate, as part of an effort to try to revitalize the economy after the Great Recession.
Now that Raimondo is leaving office and McKee is taking the helm, the agency’s focus appears likely to shift from what it was prior to the pandemic.
Raimondo said she is taking the agency’s business model with her to Washington, D.C., to aid the national economic recovery, while serving as the United States secretary of commerce.
(MINOR edits throughout.)
Cassius Shuman is a PBN staff writer. You may reach him at Shuman@PBN.com.
