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.

Rhode Island Small Business Regulatory Fairness Bill

This bill would change the rules for how Rhode Island state agencies analyze the impact of new regulations on small businesses. Currently, when a state agency proposes a new rule, it must prepare an "economic impact statement" that looks at how the rule might affect small businesses. This bill would add a new requirement to those statements: agencies would have to specifically find and confirm that the costs of complying with the new rule grow proportionally with business size — meaning a tiny business wouldn't face the same dollar burden as a large corporation.

In practical terms, the bill is targeting a common problem where a flat, one-size-fits-all compliance cost (like a fixed fee or a set paperwork requirement) hits small businesses much harder than large ones, since large businesses can spread that cost across more revenue and employees. Under this bill, before a new rule could move forward, the agency would need to show that its cost structure doesn't accidentally give big businesses an unfair advantage over smaller competitors.

This bill would primarily affect small business owners across Rhode Island, as well as the state agencies that write and enforce regulations. Small businesses would potentially benefit from greater protection against disproportionate regulatory burdens. State agencies would face an additional analytical requirement when drafting new rules, meaning more upfront work to evaluate how compliance costs are distributed. The bill has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee, where it will be reviewed before any further action is taken.