(Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series focused on questions from Providence Business News readers for R.I. Commerce Corp. Secretary Elizabeth M. Tanner.)
1. Why doesn’t R.I. Commerce focus on and amplify Providence, as the center of the Providence metro area [R.I. and southeastern Mass.], to attract new, large corporations/businesses?
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Commerce’s mission and goal is to attract new businesses of all sizes and to help existing ones grow in every community in Rhode Island. Commerce recognizes Providence as the capital city that has a diverse and innovative talent pool that we are constantly working to engage through our many programs such as Technical Assistance, Wavemaker, Minority Business Accelerator, SupplyRI and more to help set them up for long-term economic success.
2. When will technical assistance companies expect to receive a service agreement from Skills for RI if they’ve been prequalified? We [and a few other companies we have spoken with] received notice of being prequalified at the end of April but have not received a service agreement yet [despite checking on it twice], and I believe vendors cannot be matched with interested applicants to the program until the service agreement is in place.
Service agreements started going out to prequalified vendors in early July. Yes, vendors do need to have a completed service agreement to be matched with a small business and conduct technical assistance work. Good news, the deadline to apply for Technical Assistance has been extended to Aug. 15 for businesses and vendors! For those who aren’t familiar with the program, approved vendors provide small businesses with technical assistance in areas such as accounting, marketing, public relations, legal, business planning, IT, HR and more to help stabilize, strengthen and scale their businesses. For more information and to apply visit: https://commerceri.com/ri-rebounds/technical-assistance-program/.
3. What is the timeline you envision RI Rebounds running for? Will this program occur over multiple years? Or is the goal to expend the current program budget by Dec. 31?
We expect most of the RI Rebounds programs (including Ventilation, Take It Outside and Technical Assistance) to be fully expended and complete by the end of December 2023. The technical assistance program may run longer, as that program involves deeper work between vendors and the small businesses they serve. Under the federal regulations governing the use of SFRF funding, we must incur all costs and obligate all the RI Rebounds funding by Dec. 31, 2024.
4. Recently, I bought a dozen bagels at a [Providence bagel shop] drive-thru. I was charged sales tax. Since I am not charged tax when buying a dozen bagels from a supermarket, I questioned the [bagel shop] clerk. She said she didn’t know why tax is charged but speculated that tax may be charged because [the shop] is a “restaurant.” What’s right regarding taxing food purchases?
What a great question! Bakery items, such as bagels, sold by a retailer that provides utensils to customers are not exempt from sales tax, as those bakery items are considered prepared food when the utensils are provided, even if you don’t take or are given utensils [RIGL 44-18-30]. The bagels and other bakery items sold at a grocery store that does not provide utensils are not considered prepared food. At an establishment such as [the bagel shop], utensils are provided by the retailer, which changes the bagels from food that is exempt from sales tax to a prepared food that is not exempt.
(Do you have a question for R.I. Commerce Secretary Elizabeth M. Tanner? Send it to PBN Editor Mike Mello at mello@pbn.com.)
