Requires agencies preparing economic impact statements for small businesses contain findings that the anticipated compliance costs of a proposed rule scale proportionally with the business size, and do not impose fixed costs that favor larger businesses.

Plain-English Summary

When state agencies in Rhode Island create new rules and regulations, they are already required to prepare economic impact statements that analyze how those rules will affect small businesses. This bill would add a new requirement to that process: agencies would have to specifically evaluate whether the costs of complying with a new rule grow proportionally with a business's size. In other words, agencies would need to confirm that a small business with a few employees doesn't end up paying the same flat fee or facing the same fixed burden as a large corporation with hundreds of employees.

The concern this bill addresses is sometimes called "regulatory regressive costs" — when a rule charges everyone the same amount regardless of size, a $10,000 compliance cost might be manageable for a large company but devastating for a small local business. Under this bill, before a new rule takes effect, agencies would have to show in writing that their rule avoids this kind of uneven burden, or at least acknowledge if it doesn't.

This bill would primarily affect small business owners across Rhode Island, as well as the state agencies that write and enforce regulations. Small businesses could benefit from greater protection against one-size-fits-all rules, while agencies would face an added step in their rulemaking process to document how costs are distributed. The bill was introduced in the House and referred to the Small Business Committee, but has been held for further study, meaning it has not yet advanced toward becoming law.