Given some of the initiatives included in Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo’s latest budget proposal, one gets the impression that her political staff sees some vulnerability in the fact that she’s been so visibly looking to attract big-name, out-of-state companies to Rhode Island with taxpayer subsidies.  Naturally, her progressive response is to create more government programs that give advantage to small businesses willing to come to the government with their hats in their hands.  Sarah Doiron describes the latest for WPRI:

Raimondo said her budget proposal includes $475,000 to support the new initiative, with the Commerce Corporation maintaining a database of local suppliers for employers and suppliers.

“Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. When our biggest employers support local businesses, they know they’re getting a quality product and that their spending is going right back into our local economy,” Raimondo said. “Supply RI will strengthen every business – big and small – that participates. I’m grateful to the employers that have already made a commitment to participate and will work with business and civic leaders across the state to increase participation.”

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So the quasi-public Commerce Corp. gets another half-million dollars in its budget to putz around and create some service that the free market hasn’t cared to create.  Maybe it’ll be some sort of super expensive reference source, or maybe there will be some sort of incentive.  Certainly, the incentive to make the governor happy by participating is built in to the plan.

We should almost hope that the idea flops so that the government doesn’t gain control over some all-important business-to-business list that it can then turn around and use to manipulate the business practices and social behavior of Rhode Islanders under threat of being excluded.

Why not just reduce the costs in taxes and compliance that we impose on businesses so that they can better market themselves to their neighbors or just lower prices?