Home Economy Economic Activity Regulatory reform needed to ease the burden on R.I. businesses

Regulatory reform needed to ease the burden on R.I. businesses

By

John C. Simmons

-

06/18/2025

Across the nation, business owners work hard to contribute to their communities, create jobs and drive America’s economy forward. Unfortunately, Rhode Island business owners have to work harder than most, operating in a complex, often burdensome, regulatory environment. To address this shortcoming and remove obstacles for business growth, the state should be reducing – not

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Across the nation, business owners work hard to contribute to their communities, create jobs and drive America’s economy forward. Unfortunately, Rhode Island business owners have to work harder than most, operating in a complex, often burdensome, regulatory environment. To address this shortcoming and remove obstacles for business growth, the state should be reducing – not increasing – the requirements and burdens. To this end, the Rhode Island Business Coalition urges members of the General Assembly to reject the lengthy list of ill-advised proposals before them in this current legislative session that will only add to the state’s regulatory burden. First and foremost are proposals to add costly health insurance mandates, which raise the costs of premiums. These mandates impact the ability of employers to offer insurance coverage for their employees - a significant concern for Rhode Island small business owners. Health insurance benefit mandates and coverage requirements contribute to the high cost of health care coverage. Each year, the legislature considers dozens of new benefit mandates that impact the cost of providing coverage. During this session there are more than 25 such bills to add new coverage mandates or requirements that will only increase the cost of coverage for business. Incredibly, however, there is no independent analysis of these bills to determine the costs for business owners. It’s impossible to determine the impact of the legislation without a cost-benefit analysis of each proposed change. The RIBC urges the General Assembly to reject these new mandates until the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner can conduct a cost-benefit analysis. This would provide the legislature with essential data to determine whether a proposal should ultimately be enacted into law. Also before the legislature are proposals to ban both non-compete agreements and production quotas for warehouse workers. Business climates are most successful when regulation is limited to managing high-risk threats to public safety and the environment, not daily management decisions. These proposals vastly overreach that scope undermining business operations and growth. Non-compete clauses are often mutually beneficial, as employees tend to stay employed longer and the employer – knowing this longevity is likely – is more inclined to invest in additional training and professional development. The regulation of this arrangement is unnecessary and adds an additional burden on local businesses. Similarly, banning production quotas for warehouse workers interferes with the standard business practice of measuring performance. Quotas help employers reach goals and meet obligations owed to customers and business partners, while also providing a simple, unbiased metric for capturing and rewarding employee performance. Everyone wins when we allow businesses to operate without imposing crushing regulations and requirements imposed by the bureaucracy. Business innovation drives growth, creating new jobs and additional tax revenue that all Rhode Islanders can benefit from. In this session of the assembly, it’s more important that ever that our businesses can operate in a way that benefits us all. John Simmons is the president of the Rhode Island Business Coalition.