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Ice cream inspection fee one of R.I.’s many business-stifling regulations, state official tells NRI Chamber of Commerce
LINCOLN – Opening a restaurant in Rhode Island has been an unwieldy, cumbersome process. Seemingly endless reams of paperwork, innumerable government regulations, and outdated laws can make the ordeal an exhausting one.
For example, if a restaurateur wants to include a soft-serve ice cream machine in his or her establishment, that alone costs $160 per year in fees. Why’s that? To hear Liz Tanner, the director of the Department of Business Regulation, tell it, it’s because of an obtuse and obscure state regulation.
When the machines were first installed back in the late 1960s, the ice cream would be dispensed via copper pipes. But as frozen “slush” drinks were introduced years later, the acids in the juice would react to the copper in a way that made some children sick when they sipped the beverage. Thus, a license was created to know exactly which restaurants and ice cream parlors had those machines, so the state could check to ensure that the slush juice was not coming out of a copper pipe.
As technology has advanced, the machines now all include safe plastic pipes. Yet the $160 yearly fee stands. Tanner says “we’re trying to eliminate that.”
That’s just one of many vague or obsolete regulations that Tanner is aiming to change to make Rhode Island a more business-friendly state. She outlined what’s been accomplished and her objectives for the future during Wednesday morning’s
Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce “Eggs and Issues” breakfast at Kirkbrae Country Club.
Since taking her position with DBR, Tanner has created a variety of programs aimed at streamlining the process of opening or operating a business. That includes a concierge-level service to help businesses, a one-stop shop for all business inquiries, a Small Business Hotline (401521-HELP), and a Small Business Assistance Program that targets micro- and traditional loan programs to small businesses which have had difficulty getting loans from traditional lenders.
“One of the biggest problems was how hard it is to get financing … There are programs that will help you navigate that and find what’s best for you,” Tanner said. “A micro-loan for $5,000 to $15,000 doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you’re a small business, $15,000 can make or break you.”
Tanner also helped create the Statewide Action Team, or STAT, which she said “promises to respond to a problem within 24 hours. That was not the case when I started. We were able to knock down barriers.”
A State Ombudsman is also available to handle what Tanner calls “more complex issues,” and is able to provide information on what could be a complicated problem that takes many months to resolve. She cited as an example a local business owner who was trying to sell a product in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and the Ombudsman worked with the country and made it possible.
Tanner said through her interactions with business owners and chambers of commerce, she’s found that people were frustrated with bad laws still in effect, shoddy customer service, or overlong paperwork. She said a 13-page application is required simply to become a hairdresser in Rhode Island, calling that “a little outrageous.”
These countless problems are being addressed in a num- ber of ways, Tanner said. The Office of Regulatory Reform through August is reviewing every state regulation and they’ve already eliminated 3,000 pages of regulations. Thanks to this effort, the time it takes for a business owner to obtain a letter of good standing has declined from an average of 97 days to 23 days, which is right around the national average, Tanner said.
Tanner also said they’ve also heard about how cumbersome the land-use development process is, with many complaints centered around zoning codes. Tanner addressed the streamlining of the registration and licensing process, saying that in Pawtucket, there were originally 14 different forms and a minimum of 12 visits to City Hall to open a restaurant. Now, that’s down to four forms and no necessary visits, as it’s all available online or by phone.
“That’s an enormous time-saver,” Tanner said.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo is currently asking for $200,000 for a pilot program to streamline and assist zoning, identify changes, and work with municipalities to let them know what changes are coming, Tanner said. Raimondo is also proposing consolidating the Fire Marshal Office, Fire Code Safety Appeal Board, Building Code Commission, and Contractor’s Registration Board into a single entity to harmonize codes and make the state more amiable to business.
John Gregory, president and chief executive officer of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, said “What’s exciting to me and should be exciting to all of us is you give Liz a problem and Liz is going to solve that problem. I was very excited when she told me she was going to be the new head of the Department of Business Regulation.”