By Tessa Roy, WPRO News
In the middle of Details Barber Shop in Cranston, Mayor Allan Fung described what he would do for small businesses if he becomes governor.
“I feel that for too many years, Rhode Island state government has treated small business owners… like an ATM machine with nothing more than crushing taxes and fees and onerous overregulation,” he said.
Fung said if elected, small businesses not turning a profit won’t pay a minimum tax that year. He also said he wants to do away with “harassing” audits.
Fung also wants to eliminate the inheritance tax for family businesses. He said the tax will be zero as long as a business stays open for five years after it’s transferred from one family member to another.
The plan also includes instituting a 10-year statute on the state’s ability to collect back taxes, reducing the 18% interest rate on past due taxes, lowering fees on licensing, permitting, and business incorporation, and “maximizing” some federal funding to help emerging small businesses.
“Gone will be the days of providing taxpayer subsidies to a few select Fortune 500 companies while forgetting about the heart and soul of our state’s economy,” Fung said.
Asked how he’d pay for the tax breaks in the plan, Fung said many of the measures do not actually involve tax breaks. He also said his plan would apply to businesses that are defined as small by the Small Business Administration.
In a respose to the Mayor’s plan, Governor Gina Raimondo’s team detailed some of what it said were her small business accomplishments. Campaign Senior Advisor Mike Raia pointed out an “irony” in Fung making his announcement at a barber shop, saying that under Raimondo, “the state has eliminated thousands of pages of regulations and fees, including the chair fee barbers and hairdressers had to pay and zoning requirements for cosmetologists.”
“Governor Raimondo is bringing the change to Rhode Island that small businesses need. She created the state’s first small business loan program, and she’s cut taxes, cut regulations, and cut red tape. Under her leadership and with support from small business owners, Rhode Island’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in nearly 20 years and the state’s economy is the 17th best in the nation,” said Raia. “For 10 years as mayor, Allan Fung ignored Cranston’s small businesses, local retailers and neighborhood restaurants while he chased big box stores, chain restaurants, and even 38 Studios.”
