These days, one almost thinks it must be a typo when somebody declines a government handout:

Alex and Ani’s Carolyn Rafaelian said Tuesday she doesn’t want any grant funding from the state’s Renewable Energy Fund to help pay for the solar panels she’s installing on Belcourt of Newport, the historic castle she bought last year for $3.6 million.

She said she didn’t know the small company she hired for the solar project, Newport Renewables, had requested $18,504.79 from the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation…

The storyline is especially satisfying, given the specifics of the case.  The project is to put green-energy equipment on one of the state’s best known mansions, now owned by one of the state’s best-known wealthy people.  If that’s not a parable for both the green movement and the state’s economic development strategy, it’d be hard to make one up.

Meanwhile, economic forecasts are still calling for the Ocean State to remain stagnant:

… forces outside Washington could dim the job-growth forecast for Rhode Island, [URI economics professor Edward] Mazze said. ….

As an example, developers are building a $120-million, 300,000-square-foot outlet mall that is expected to open in late 2014 or early 2015 at Foxwoods… “That could have a significant impact on retail activity in this state,” Mazze said.

Suppose if, instead of funding politically popular projects for special interests, Rhode Island took a headline-grabbing step to improve its economy based on principles that put the people of the state first — eliminating the sales tax, perhaps.  Then $120 million retail developments might be going up within our borders and disturbing the economic forecasters in neighboring states.

The greens might not like the fact that Rhode Island’s economy is actually developing, but bringing in out-of-state customers would be a better way to get money to Alex and Ani.